The WPA: A kind of dismissive analysis

Sep 17, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There have been reactions from Dr. David Hinds and Tacuma Ogunseye on my recent reflections of the WPA over the past three weeks. David wrote; “My friend, Freddie Kissoon, and I have, over the last few years, had many heated discussions about the WPA—its fate, role, its stances on issues and the political conduct of some of its leaders.
“Freddie was once a WPA member who became disillusioned with the party and left. He is not singular in that regard—some leading members of the party left for varying reasons. Most of them have, however, remained part of what I normally refer to as the “WPA family.” Freddie is not part of that family—at least not actively.
“Freddie has a strange attitude to the WPA, perhaps because of his boundless independence. On the one hand, he credits the WPA with lifting the politics of Guyana to a positively new level, but on the other hand, he sees the current party as irrelevant. In a real sense I think he believes the WPA’s time has come and gone—a view on which we disagree.”
Here is what Tacuma wrote; “This is not the first time nor will it be the last occasion that Mr. Kissoon has questioned and will question the WPA’s politics and our political judgment on how to best influence political developments in the country.
“Additionally, on several occasions in the past Kissoon had deemed the party to be dead and buried. It seems to me that he is so haunted by the ‘ghost’ of this organization that he has tremendous difficulty in finding a final resting place for its carcass. That is why his position as regards to the WPA is so contradictory.
”On the one hand he sees the WPA as dead, and on the other hand he has high expectations of this dead entity. Someone should help him to make up his mind as to whether the WPA is really dead and buried or, is in fact alive. What I find somewhat surprising is the accusation in his article of the WPA as being “dishonest and barefaced”.
There are too many answers to be given here thus space will not allow for it. I never for a moment will doubt David and Tacuma’s nationalistic embrace of Guyana. We have been friends when we were very, very young. We remain good, personal friends but I went in a different political direction a long time ago.
I would say a crucial factor differentiates me from David and Tacuma and David recognized it when he made mention of my independent mind. I feel I am obligated to history more than to any political party or country or even friend. Whereas David and Tacuma are driven by the sentiments of the once great WPA, I have no such sentiments. Therefore, I cannot see the WPA the way they do. Loyalty to party does not come into the picture at all.
For me, the WPA exists in name rather than in substance. I cannot be insulting to my praxis and my life as an academic to seriously deny what I see in front of me. What I have seen over the decades has caused me to see the WPA as limping along rather than a party that is made of flesh and bones.
In another column, I will describe my feelings that caused me to divorce myself from the WPA. David refers to people who have left but remains a part of something he calls a “WPA family” and he doesn’t think I am part of that family. I am not, and I don’t think I know or recognize a construct or a formation known as the “WPA family” in Guyana.
Why many WPA stalwarts still talk about the WPA party is because of psychology. The sentiments are there. They cannot let go. But on both a political and scientific level, there are characteristics that constitute a political formation.
If David and Tacuma want to point to a party office and a number of persons and say that is the WPA then I believe they are right. But you are being technical more than realistic. A party is about activism. I honesty do not see the activism of the WPA not even in ways that the WPA stalwarts claim that it is there. Surely the WPA cannot think that people are so naïve to believe them.
I will end with a brief example. For years now, only three persons appear on the WPA weekly television programme. Where are the leaders? More in forthcoming columns.

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The WPA: A kind of dismissive analysis

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