Dear Editor,

It is my belief that the en masse migration of Indo- Guyanese to North America and the United Kingdom had an even greater debilitating impact on the Guyanese economy, given that Indo- Guyanese comprise more than 50% of the Guyanese population. Indo-Guyanese excelled in business, the professions (doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers, surgeons etc.), in entrepreneurship and dominated in educational achievements. On a personal note, my mother's family had huge rice farms and coconut estates and they were among the richest Guyanese. My father's parents started out as humble shopkeepers on the Corentyne coast and diversified into sawmilling and transportation. My father's brothers were also among the richest Guyanese, having painstakingly built their businesses, even through the hardships of the Burnham dictatorship. Most of my family, including me, now live abroad and are achieving even more than we ever did in Guyana and I see little hope of us remigrating.

My point is it sounds sort of silly to single out one race and then to wonder, as Joey Jagan does, about what would have happened, had this race maintained their numbers in Guyana. I could just as well have listed the numerous achievements of the Chinese Guyanese and the Afro- Guyanese. I know, personally, that some of my best teachers at Queen's and also at primary school were African Guyanese. All races suffered under the Burnham oppression, but the Indians bore the brunt of it. I know of the kickbacks and "contributions" that Indian businesses were forced to make to the paramount party and its members.

Isn't Joey forgetting that the United Force contributed greatly to Guyana's disaster by joining forces with the PNC in the 1960s just so that the majority Indians were denied their right to govern the country. In every democracy, isn't it almost always that the majority rules, with safeguards for minority groups. Also is he seriously asking us to believe that Guyana would have ended up in this mess, if his father, Cheddi, had been allowed to govern, in spite of his communist leaning?

Yours faithfully,

Mike Rahaman