Guyanese Look Forward to the PPP’s Olive Branch of Hope and Inclusivity

Dear Editor,

In response to Mr. Kwayana’s letter (KN June 12.20), it is unfortunate that Eusi Kwayana is no longer on these shores, since it would have been a real benefit to have met someone who is a virtual living legend of Guyana’s history. I had sought his company prior to the recent election for counsel and support.

Guyana’s history is a sad one indeed, and while there have been wrongs on both sides of our political divide, I’m sure Mr. Kwayana can appreciate the PNC’s own contributions to dismembering whatever trust Indo-Guyanese could have had of them, even reaching to the more recent attempts in 2001 by the PNC to use African Guyanese lives to engage in a futile civil war against the then administration after the PNC realised that it did not have the moral trust of Guyanese to ever win an election again.

Indian Guyanese are to be commended for ‘taking a chance’ on putting the PNC, now operating through the APNU, back into government, even though they placed their votes in favour of the AFC, which turned out to be even worse than the PNC. The change in government in 2015 has been good to Guyana for a number of reasons.

First, the younger generation of traditional PNC supporters witness for themselves the depravity of the PNC about which they heard so much during their short lives. Secondly, the PPP had an opportunity to reassess the population, recognising that not all people who would support the PNC are willing to condone its excesses. I think also many traditional PNC supporters recognise their party as being the source of ethnic insecurities.

Lastly, among the more important, there is now a determined recognition that there is need for new blood, a reassessment of our national policy framework, and a renewed commitment to constitutional reform by all stakeholders.
Guyanese look forward to the olive branch of inclusivity offered by the new PPP administration, because this is the fair, just and only true path for a society as diversified as ours.

I add here that all sides of the population if not political divide, hope for healing of the wounds and personal and national pain endured throughout our short history. We are on the cusp of great hope and opportunity for social and economic progress. It is my sincere hope that we live up to the dreams and aspirations Mr. Kwayana, Dr. Jagan, Ashton Chase, and our other early fathers had for us as a nation.

Regards,
Craig Sylvester