From The UWI

Jamaica, July 11, 2020.

The following statement is issued by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Professor of Economic History.

Sometimes it
requires a personal rather than political or professional perspective
to see beyond the borders of a seemingly divisive circumstance, and
to offer a dispassionate comment. I was named by my father after his
cousin, Hilary Alfonso McDonald Beckles. “HAM Beck”, as he was
called, was little known in our native Barbados, but his contribution
to nation building in Guyana is well respected. In the late 1940s he
fled “Bim” for “BG”. He taught classics for near three
decades at Queens College in Georgetown, where he also became
principal.

His commitments to
Guyana straddled the diverse ethnic and cultural scene. He married an
Amerindian woman, and considered himself a research authority on
Hindu culture and Indian civilization. He admired the colony’s
ethnic diversity and adopted the new nation of 1966 as his home.
Supporting the nation’s dream for democratic development and the
equality of ethnicities was his personal quest.

Through those eyes
I came to embrace the wonderful land of a thousand rivers. I know
something of its history and culture, including the good and the bad
times evident in its turbulent journey to and beyond nationhood. It
has been a torn and tortured terrain with divisive seeds sown in the
colonial waters that nurture the rich land.

The determined
evidence of the debilitating deployment of ethnic identity as
expressions of indigenous nationalism can be seen in far too many
places. But, above it all, there is also the compelling story, in the
history from sea walls to sugar estates, of commitment to the
paramount principle that the will of the people should not be
toppled, but respected.

The people have
spoken. And so has the highest court. From the 2019-2020 electoral
campaign and franchise exercise, their will is now known. With much
pain and sacrifice the process has been monitored and reviewed by
CARICOM. The findings of the outcome should be declared and
implemented. There is no other option that will be acceptable to the
region and wider world. The future of the nation is assured with the
compliance of State to the popular will. The regional court is
counting on the integrity of the polity to protect the democracy.

Fear of the future
is not an acceptable explanation for franchise frustration in the
present. Ethical conduct, and not ethnic constructs, is expected to
rule when democracy is in need of advocacy. The children of
indigenous survivors, the chattel enslaved, the deceived indentured,
and others in between, must now converge at the rendezvous of
victory. The minority party should stay the course and continue to
contribute to the sustainability and maturity of the integrated,
multi-racial nation.

In this regard,
despite the challenges of late, the nation has much to teach its
region and the world beyond. This year is the 40th
anniversary of the violent taking of Walter Rodney’s life. It was
forfeit because of the socially and politically integrated values he
held most dear. He was from that generation of outstanding Guyanese
scholars nurtured by HAM Beckles.

I join with the
current and past Heads of CARICOM, the Honourable Ralph Gonsalves and
the Honourable Mia Mottley respectively, and with the former Prime
Minister of Barbados, the Honourable Owen Arthur, in calling for the
official embrace of the evidentiary truth of the election. Every hour
that the celebration of a new day is allowed to sour, the greater
will be the tarnish on the varnish of the history of a great nation.

Hilary McD
Beckles

Professor of
Economic History