‘Ogunseye went unforgivably too far’ – Guyana Chronicle
–Nascimento says
COMMUNICATION Consultant and civil society member, Kit Nascimento, has questioned what direction the political opposition is attempting to influence Guyana towards with their continued focus on racial politics that climaxed with recent incendiary remarks made by Executive member of the Working People Alliance (WPA), Tacuma Ogunseye.
In a letter to the editor, Nascimento argued that Ogunseye went more than just “a little too far,” despite Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) Aubrey Norton’s attempt to downplay the severity of racially incendiary remarks.
“We must ask the question how one of the leaders, Tacuma Ogunseye, of a political party, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), which was recently an active and vocal member of the past APNU+AFC government, can mount a public political platform at Buxton on which the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Aubrey Norton, sat, and propose that our security forces turn their guns against a duly elected government to support a mass uprising to overthrow the government, and be allowed to get away with it?” Nascimento asked.
Apart from Ogunseye and Norton, Nascimento also called out the behaviour of Chairperson of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Cathay Hughes, WPA Executive, Dr. David Hinds, and opposition supporter Rickford Burke.
Noting that majority of Guyanese understandably responded in condemnation of Ogunseye’s remarks, Nascimento called out Norton, who is also Leader of the Opposition, for seeking to justify Ogunseye’s statement as a right to free speech.
“Norton knows full well that advocating sedition, does not qualify for protection as free speech… Mr. Norton knows full well that Ogunseye went much, much too far, unforgivably too far,” Nascimento
Similarly, Nascimento highlighted the lack of strong reproach from the AFC camp, which has simply side stepped the issue at best.
“Even though the WPA is today a political party bereft from popular political support, its leadership, prominently including Professor David Hinds, persist in pursuing an utterly obnoxious and dangerous race hate activism,” Nascimento opined.
He accused Dr. Hinds, who currently resides overseas, of hiding behind the comfort of being in a distant land to spew his race hate in Guyana through his online radio programme “Politics 101”, recalling the pointed cases where Dr. Hinds advocated discrimination against Indo-Guyanese.
“Hinds, sitting in Arizona, preaches that Guyanese Africans boycott Indian businesses. But David Hinds doesn’t stop there. He calls the Guyanese Indians who are members of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) and PNC/R Parliamentarians “traitors” and “slave catchers” for condemning the hate speech of Ogunseye. Hinds then issues threats,” Nascimento noted.
He added: “While David Hinds promotes race hate in Guyana, he dares not do so in the US. He dares not embrace the just cause of African Americans who once were, and, even today, are subject to discrimination from southern white Americans in the state where Hinds teaches. Hinds knows full well that he would lose his job with the university.”
However, it is noted that Dr. Hinds is not a lone overseas based Guyanese promoting racism from the safety of being overseas.
“He is joined by Rickford Burke who heads the so-called ‘Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy’ based in New York where he lives, which published the rubbish on Burkes’ Facebook page,” Nascimento noted.
“Nothing, however outlandish, however gross, however big the lie, is beyond these men to promote division and destruction in our country. These are not stupid men.
These are not men sans education, yet these are men who espouse, advocate and aggressively pursue, in the name of politics, the worst, the ugliest, the most despicable form of racial animosity, division and confrontation in a multi-racial country. These are dangerous men,” he said.
