HGP Nightly News – Opposition Chief Whip Tabitha Sarabo-Halley says Guyana cannot properly address race relations without reliable data on exclusion, discrimination, access to opportunity, and trust between communities.
Speaking at the Ethnic Relations Commission’s National Symposium, held under the theme “Guyana at 60: Unity, Diversity and the Path Forward,” Sarbo-Halley said the country’s 60th independence anniversary and the ERC’s 21 years of existence should push Guyanese to ask a difficult question: how far have we truly come?
She said Guyana has made progress, with more interaction across ethnic lines in schools, workplaces, religious spaces, communities, and families. But she warned that progress should not be confused with success.
According to Sarbo-Halley, race still shapes how many Guyanese view politics, economic opportunity, public policy, national development, and even each other.
She said many communities continue to feel left out of the benefits of development. Speaking as an African Guyanese, she said there is deep concern in many African Guyanese communities that the country’s oil wealth has not translated into meaningful economic advancement for ordinary people.
She added that many Indo-Guyanese also feel disconnected from the prosperity often spoken about in national discussions, especially as some citizens struggle with rising costs and economic uncertainty while a small group becomes extremely wealthy.
Sarabo-Halley also pointed to Indigenous communities, saying many still feel forgotten and continue to face challenges in accessing development, healthcare, education, employment, and wider economic participation.
“If African Guyanese feel left behind, if poor Indo-Guyanese feel left behind, and if Indigenous Guyanese feel forgotten,” she said, then the issue is bigger than the grievance of any single group.
For her, the real test is whether national development is being experienced as national development by all Guyanese.
Sarbo-Halley said this is where the ERC must play a stronger role. She noted that the commission’s constitutional mandate goes beyond hosting events or responding to controversies. It also includes identifying barriers to participation, studying ethnic relations, conducting research, monitoring tensions, and making recommendations to the National Assembly.
She questioned whether Guyana has made full use of those powers after 21 years.
Sarabo-Halley said the country needs comprehensive ethnic relations reports, possibly every five years, examining employment patterns, business ownership, access to state services, education outcomes, perceptions of discrimination, and levels of trust between communities.
“A mature society does not fear data,” she said. “A mature society seeks it.”
She said debates about race should be guided by research and facts, not only political narratives, assumptions, and personal experiences.
Still, Sarbo-Halley said there are reasons for hope. She noted that more Guyanese appear willing to move beyond politics defined mainly by ethnicity, even though ethnic politics has not disappeared.
She said the next 60 years will require more than economic growth. It will require trust, inclusion, participation, and institutions willing to confront difficult truths.
Guyana’s national motto, “One People, One Nation, One Destiny,” she said, must become more than a slogan. It must become a measurable reality.
