RACIAL INTOLERANCE A THREAT TO DEMOCRATIC
RULE
Not many people of conscious will deny
that recently in Guyana, there has been an escalation of racial intolerance exacerbated in large measure by partisan politics.
From all indications racial enmity between the two major ethnic groups may further jeopardize the precarious social peace,
which now permeates the country.
During the early 1960s race riots
left 150 persons dead, an undetermined number of people injured and damages to properties estimated in the millions of dollars.
A justification for the apparent festering animosity, which cannot be expunged from the minds of those who had suffered at
the hands of alleged thugs and hench-men.
In reflection it appears that proponents
of communism had miscalculated the political transmutation promulgated by our political leaders. The perceived threat of communist
expansionism in Guyana was interpreted as a direct contravention of policies espoused by the United States and its Western
allies during the COLD WAR era.
It must also be remembered that the same
perpetrators who engineered two years of racial conflict had affirmed political Independence in 1966, only to sabotage our
economy less than five years later. many other former British colonies have been victims of their egregious strategy of Divide
and Rule.
By pitting one race against the other it
engendered political instability and economic uncertainty. Too often the majority group is embroiled in racial conflicts as
the disparity between groups widen.
Moreover, these target countries are relegated
to purveyors of raw materials, always economically subservient and perpetually under the dominant country's sphere of influence.
Under such conditions the power relation is preserved and nothing is implemented to erase deep-rooted feelings of resentment
and hatred.
The inevitable consequences are mistrust
between races, religious groups and in many cases an imposition of authoritarian regimes to rule over tattered economies.
Concomitantly, widespread poverty becomes the norm and racial pertition is regrettably exploited as a necessary option
for survival.
