By Antonio Dey | HGP Nightly News|
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — Warning that a single viral social media post could either fortify national healing or ignite systemic ethnic polarization, the Chairman of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), Shaikh Moeenul Hack, has issued a sobering call to the Guyanese citizenry. Addressing a diverse cross-section of civic delegates, the ERC head stressed that as the cooperative republic celebrates its landmark 60th Independence Diamond Jubilee, the nation must become intensely disciplined about which digital narratives it chooses to feed.
The charge was delivered during the formal opening of the ERC’s high-level National Symposium, held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre under the theme “Guyana at 60: Unity, Diversity and the Path Forward.” The symposium was structured to rigorously audit the historical trajectory of multi-ethnic relations in Guyana, collect empirical sociological data, and compile a comprehensive policy report with actionable recommendations for parliamentary review.
Chairman Hack noted that Guyana is rapidly entering an unprecedented developmental era defined by exponential macroeconomic expansion, massive demographic shifts, and the pervasive, real-time influence of unregulated digital platforms. He argued that the fundamental mechanics of how Guyanese communicate, perceive one another, and establish political biases have permanently evolved over the last decade due to algorithms that frequently monetize outrage and division.
“In an age where a single social media post can spark unity or stir deep division, our individual digital footprint is of paramount importance,” Hack declared during his televised address. “We must take the persistent challenges we face and actively replace them with a culture of love, mutual respect, and absolute tolerance. Respect can no longer function merely as a comfortable national slogan; it must be executed as a strict, daily civic responsibility by every individual holding a smartphone.”
Core Mandates from the ERC National Symposium 2026
To safeguard social cohesion amidst rapid economic transformation, the ERC outlined three priority institutional focuses:
- Algorithmic Responsibility: Urging digital creators, media houses, and everyday internet users to actively reject clickbait profiling and inflammatory ethnic rhetoric on platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
- Data-Driven Peacebuilding: Utilizing the findings of the symposium to establish clear, localized metrics that track social harmony and identify potential friction points across expanding industrial and housing corridors.
- Systemic Multi-Institutional Effort: Reminding the state that sustainable national unity cannot be achieved by passive hope alone, and that it requires intentional, uniform anti-discrimination policies across corporate entities, school curricula, and regional administrative organs.
“Let us ask ourselves what kind of society we are constructing for the generations to come,” Hack urged the plenary session. “Our ultimate objective must be to leave behind a legacy of absolute peace, structured stability, and shared prosperity. True harmony requires steady, deliberate, and highly uncomfortable effort from our institutions, our faith-based organizations, and our everyday citizens.”
As Guyana commands global attention for its historic resource wealth, the ERC’s unified stance serves as a timely reminder that structural infrastructure, such as roads, shore bases, and high-rises, is only as strong as the social fabric of the people building it. By challenging the populace to turn their digital networks into instruments of national integration rather than tools of polarization, the commission aims to ensure that the milestone of 60 years of independence marks the definitive birth of a unified, digitally mature republic.
