Oh, the things this government gets away with!

Jul 27, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

If there is any ruler turning in his grave, it is Forbes Burnham. Reaching out from his mausoleum in the Botanic Gardens, Burnham asks his perpetual question: “Why did you guys fight me down?

Look what a baby party I was in comparison to what the Guyana Government is at the moment.”

If there is any opposition leader that is turning in his grave, it is Walter Rodney. From his wrongful burial place in Le Repentir Cemetery, Walter shakes his head in sempiternal anger and cries out loudly at what has replaced the man whose rule he helped to weaken. That man was Forbes Burnham.

Walter Rodney’s soul is tormented by the shadow of Arnold Rampersaud. Rampersaud was found not guilty at his third trial after two indecisive jury verdicts.

On the third occasion, a predominantly African jury acquitted Rampersaud. The decisive intervention was the personality, charisma and national influence of Walter Rodney.

If there is anything I will forever remember about Walter Rodney were his words about Rampersaud directed to the African people of Guyana.

In many ways, Barack Obama has the semantic flair of Walter Rodney. Speaking at a public meeting in Georgetown, Walter appealed to African Guyanese not to hang Rampersaud.

He told his listeners that Burnham was using African Guyanese to kill a man just because he was East Indian. Then the part that moved me emotionally and will forever live in my soul came.

It was when Walter said that Burnham’s attempt to use an African jury to hang an East Indian was an insult to African Guyanese who are a proud people who should never let their dignity be so tarnished.

Shortly after that magnificent speech, perhaps the best ever made at a political meeting in this country, the jury returned a not guilty verdict.

Rampersaud was driven out of the courtyard, onto Robb Street and then taken to Freedom House. It was at that trial I came to know the great Maurice Bishop who flew in from Grenada to join the defence team.

Rampersaud got refugee status in Canada. He is in his seventies now but he owes the morality and integrity of this nation a huge obligation.

He ought to acknowledge that Mark Benschop was wrongfully imprisoned. Rampersaud spent two years in remand before his trial. Benschop spent five.

Rampersaud should show his moral obligation to Oliver Hinckson by joining the chorus for bail. Surely Rampersaud must see the thing that he has in common with Benschop and Hinckson.

If Rampersaud is reading this, I hope he fulfills his duty to this country. I cannot discuss the Hinckson trial on this page because it is sub judice.

Suffice it to say that not only the PNC but the AFC, the GHRA and other organisations do not think Mr. Hinckson should have been charged.

So what do Forbes Burnham and Walter Rodney have in common? They are both turning in their graves at the political atrophy that has smothered this territory; for different reasons, of course.

Burnham wants to know what the fuss was all about on how he ruled Guyana when the PPP is more shameless than him.

Walter Rodney lives in anguish on the failure of his heroic efforts, for which he gave his life to make Guyana a more humane and democratic country. These two men cannot believe what they are seeing in their beloved Guyana today.

The things that this government gets away with, Burnham would not have allowed and Rodney would have struggled against. A company gets prodigious concessions that were outside the law.

The particular legislation is being amended and will apply retroactively to benefit the said business entity.

A magistrate shoots a policeman and the society hears nothing further after one month. The police have an accused in the massacre of eight miners and no one knows who he is or where he is.

A prisoner was reportedly beaten to death by members of the army or prison service and no explanation is given to the people of Guyana.

A hotel is being built in Kingston and the name of the investor(s) is deliberately withheld from the public.

A man is charged with fraud involving maybe hundreds of millions of dollars and a junior policewoman is the prosecutor. A request by two lawyers to prosecute pro bono has not met with an answer from the DPP.

A magistrate grants bail to a citizen who is not the type to abscond but the Attorney-General applies for a suspension of that decision from a judge and obtains it.

One daily newspaper was victimized for two years. Another daily runs a front page comment complaining to the Guyanese people that it senses victimization for exposing one of Guyana’s most perverted financial scandals. These are just the tip of the iceberg.