Important lessons of the Jonestown Massacre

Nov 18, 2008 Letters

Dear Editor,
Thirty years after that devastating incident at Jonestown, which left 909 persons, including 303 children and US Congressman Leo Ryan dead, people from around the world, including the survivors and the relatives of those who died, continue to be baffled by the chain of events that led to that monumental disaster.

Guyanese who are old enough will recall that, in the early hours of November 18, 1978, we were bombarded by frantic calls from relatives overseas to verify reports which were first heard in the USA, that spoke to the horrors of a tragedy of immense proportions which had taken place at Jonestown.

That tragedy shook the world. It was subsequently learnt that The People’s Temple, which was led by the notorious iron-fisted Jim Jones and which had its genesis in the USA and counted mainly American citizens in its membership, had self-destructed as a result of acts of murder and suicide orchestrated by Jim Jones. Guyanese were as traumatized as the survivors and relatives of the deceased.

While questions continue to be raised as to the real purpose of The People’s Temple – one theory being that it was in fact one in a series of CIA mind-control centres — what is clear is that Jim Jones and his group were allowed to establish a settlement by the PNC Government in Guyana’s interior and that there was very little governmental oversight of the operations of that organisation.

It is also clear that, somewhere along the way, The People’s Temple had acquired considerable influence among certain political officials in the then Government who, among other things, attempted to influence the course of justice in the courts.

The action by the then Minister of Home Affairs, Vibert Mingo, to get Justice Aubrey Bishop to reverse his decision that Jim Jones “must appear and give evidence in the Baby Stoen case,” in the matter of a custody dispute that was engaging the judge’s attention, is a case in point. Jim Jones ignored the judge’s order.

If Justice Bishop’s ruling was heeded on that occasion, maybe, just maybe, the outcome at Jonestown would have been different.

There are several lessons for Guyanese in The People’s Temple fiasco. The most important are: one, that interference by political tin gods, big or small, in the judicial process has far-reaching negative effects on a country and its citizens; and two, that under no circumstance should Guyana’s soil and sovereignty be compromised for any purpose whatsoever.
Working People Alliance

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Important lessons of the Jonestown Massacre

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