Gov’t committed to racial harmony

GEORGETOWN (CMC):

The ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) on Monday said that it is committed to easing racial tension in the country and appealed to all citizens to do everything possible to deal with race conflict in Guyana.

He said that race conflict is a very important issue not only for his new government, but for all Guyanese collectively.

“The government, though, has a responsibility for charting policies and programmes that reflect the needs and aspirations of all the people of our country,” he said, adding that in terms of public policy and programming, it is essential that they are designed “for all the people of our country, and that’s a great responsibility of the government.

“And that is what you will see reflected in the way we craft our policy,” Ali told reporters as he responded to suggestions that the country has entered into a new phase of racial tension given the electoral victory of his Indo-based political party over the Afro-Guyanese-dominated opposition party.

He said that the traditional media has a role to play in ensuring racial harmony while being critical of social media in that regard.

“How we capture a headline can be a difference in how people react,” he said, having received more than a thousand Facebook postings sent to him following the brutal murders of two young men over the last weekend.

The police have since said that three people are assisting their investigations, and former president David Granger, on a visit to the families of the two men on Monday, acknowledged that “for the last five years, we struggled to build social cohesion, struggled to treat every body equal.

“Nothing like this never happened for five years, and now barely a month and a half ... all lives matter, and we must make sure we can protect ourselves and our communities. What you all are doing here is the correct response to crime, and the government must protect all citizens, whoever they are, wherever they are,” he added.

But Ali said that some of the Facebook postings came from people “who I would have great respect for, for their intellect, their level of education, but their posting is not only damaging and insensitive. But their posting borders on criminality itself, and as your president, I want to say we have to address these issues frontally. We have to not only monitor, but we have to take strong action on social media for some of the hateful posts and speeches that are being pursued on social media”.