I HAVE A MANDATE TO ADVOCATE FOR CHANGE OF THE PRESENT ARRANGEMENTS
Dr. Prem Misir has over the last few years written a lot on the issue of race and ethnicity. His general thrust has been that racial and ethnic problems in Guyana are exaggerated. This has also been the PPP’s line since attaining office in 1992. Prior to 1992 the PPP had seen the situation differently. In addition to its Marxist class analysis, it identified a racial component of the prevailing politics, especially in relation to what it perceived as the African political directorate’s racial discrimination against and oppression of Indians...

THE WPA IN TIME AND PLACE
Quite a lot have been said and written about the WPA over the last few weeks. Some of the sentiments expressed have been positive while others have been negative. I would like to comment on two of these. Many pundits, commentators, and other citizens have said that the WPA is dead, that it in fact died when Walter Rodney was assassinated. Never mind after Rodney’s murder the party’s membership increased, its structures improved, and its influence among the multi-racial masses deepened. No doubt Walter’s death was a big blow to the WPA, Guya...

GUYANA STILL TO COME TO GRIPS WITH RODNEY’S IDEAS
Twenty-two years after Walter Rodney's assassination, Guyana still struggles to come to grips with some of the fundamental issues that occupied his energies and eventually led to his demise. Yet, there can be no doubt that Dr. Rodney's contribution to the country's struggle to overcome its harsh legacy of racial polarization and political and economic underdevelopment is second to none. If any individual could be credited with rallying the country at that crucial juncture in the 1970s to escape its racial and class prisons and confront the dict...

TIME TO END MEANINGLESS POLEMICS
Those of us who bother to engage in the public conversation on Guyana's condition are among other things public educators. While indiscretions and biases will invariably creep into our messages, we must try hard to observe certain basic principles. These include the need to carefully read the messages we respond to and to do our homework when in doubt. Let me first of all express support for Mr. Emile Mervin's suggestion that there is need for a mediator in Guyana. Mr. Jimmy Carter is not a bad choice. But I wish to add that a mediator media...

NEGOTIATION OR CHAOS
If the current situation in Guyana weren’t so grim, I would simply say, "I told you so," because I am not surprised at the recent developments in Guyana. Some of us saw it coming a year ago and said so, not because we are cynics, but because we try to face reality. Guyana has been up to no good since December 1997 when not for the first time the body politic began to show the wear and tear of 40 years of racial strain and stress. Sadly, our maximum leaders to whom we invariably turned for solutions are themselves the heart of the problem. But r...

TWO GUYANAS—THE REAL AND THE FICTITIOUS
There are at least two Guyanas--the real Guyana and the fictitious Guyana. To begin with, Guyana is not a finished or formed nation. It is a nation-state without a nation. This is one of the reasons that the state has always been out of control. Rather than fashioning a nation that would serve as the basis of a modern state, the two pre-nations compete for the state. And the one that gets control of it uses it as a weapon of patronage, defense and witch hunting. Control of the state in Guyana is the political end game whose casualties includes ...