GEORGETOWN – Following VPAC’s condemnation, the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) has formally summoned controversial social media personality Jennifer Ally to answer for allegedly inciting racial remarks and hostility on social media. The ERC’s decisive action confirms the severity of the online rhetoric and directly validates VPAC’s assertion that Ally’s conduct was a matter for legal scrutiny.
Whether Ally will face the courts is totally up to the Commission since this is the second time within a year she has been summoned by the commission for inciting racial hostility online.
The Commission’s intervention ensures Ally will face an official probe over behavior that critics claim violates laws designed to safeguard ethnic harmony and prevent the poisonous online rhetoric from escalating into wider public disorder.
Meanwhile, head of VPAC Dorwain Bess, had issued a profound warning that a deep-seated “social sickness” of racial and ethnic division is poisoning Guyana’s political and communal life, using a recent social media scandal as explosive proof that slogans like “One Guyana” are merely a “bandage over deep, festering divisions.”
The VPAC statement specifically referenced the controversial online behavior of Jennifer Ally, noting her past public apology (demanded by the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) after crude remarks following the death of Adriana Younge) as proof that the issue was systemic.
Bess argued that Ally’s latest episode, which he said has crossed the line into behavior our laws deem criminal, is merely a symptom of a larger, systemic problem: “People are shaped by their surroundings.”Bess argued that from childhood, Guyanese absorb the “language, attitudes, and instincts of family and community,” a legacy shaped by the trauma of slavery, indentureship, colonial divide and rule, and decades of post-independence disappointment.
He asserted that these unexamined narratives develops into powerful stereotypes about who “belongs,” who “owns,” who “rules,” who are “low-lives,” and who are “thieves.” The ERC itself has documented the severity of the problem, recording hundreds of instances of hate speech violations, primarily on social media, often involving racially-inciting and divisive rhetoric.
The Commission’s efforts to monitor and curb this tide of digital hate underscore Bess’s point that the problem is widespread. He warned that this failure to address deep, structural mistrust shows up in all aspects of public life, including voting patterns and hiring practices.
He concluded that political leaders, civic groups, and everyday citizens must stop hiding behind rhetoric because “the discomfort of honest talk is small, compared with the cost of doing nothing.” The message is an urgent call for courage and unity to confront the nation’s historical demons head-on.
