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The Adam Harris story and the jigsaw puzzle

Nov 12, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

With each passing day, little tales, tiny stories, minute details, obscure, unheard of facts come into the open. Some of us, whose task in life is to write history, look at these “pebbles”, study them and try to see if they belong to a large puzzle. We try to see if they belong to a pattern that can further enlighten us about where we come from.
I entered university as a freshman to study history. I believe history is the cream of the social sciences. It tells us so many things about life. It opens our eyes. It helps us avoid pit falls.
One thing about my studies in philosophy, I always remember, is a little statement from the English thinker, Edmund Burke. Burke is not a philosopher who has influenced my thinking but he once made a profound reflection. He wrote that we must never be unmindful of the past.
One of the pursuits I have is that I seek to track down my older generation to try to get glimpses into history that would make me better understand this country as I am getting older and my daughter will have to live in it. I have had fantastic, really fantastic conversations with Eusi Kwayana, Yesu Persaud, Father Andrew Morrison, Leslie Melville, Martin Carter, Laurie Lewis, Pat Dyal, Boyo Ramsaroop and so many others. These tête-à-têtes have opened up my eyes and have torn away the veil of myths about people, places and events in Guyana.
One day, I saw a letter written in the Stabroek News by the literary expert, Mrs. Ameena Gafoor. She announced the death in Canada of the famous political/business personality of the sixties, Rahaman Gajraj. Then Mrs. Gafoor penned a few eulogistic lines on the man.
That letter struck me because Cheddi Jagan had some bitter things to say about this person in his “West on Trial.” I was motivated to write a column based on what I saw written by Mrs. Gafoor. I am one of those Guyanese who was brought up to view personalities of the sixties based on what Jagan had written about them in that book of his.
In that column, I made the point that there must have been good things about all those characters that Jagan derogated in his autobiography because they either opposed him or denounced communism.
Looking back then, we can see how perceptive these people were like Gajraj, Peter D’Aguiar and so many others. They saw the flaws, faults and dangers in the Jagans and their top lieutenants in his party and they tried to save their country. Unfortunately, they have not succeeded. But history is succeeding.
With each passing day, the facts, details, tales and stories are coming out, and the jigsaw puzzle is being put into shape. The trend is irreversible. The Jagans and the party they founded are being analysed indepth and the wrong they have done to this nation is being recorded. Two important facts have surfaced during the outpouring of sympathy for David De Caires.
I will expand on this discovery in a forthcoming essay and yet again, it will aid the jigsaw puzzle.
The Adam Harris story is making the rounds. Peter Ramsaroop has done a tremendously good thing by highlighting the Harris pay controversy but he needs to go further. I will offer my opinion on what he has to do but for know let us see if the Harris fiasco will help the jigsaw.
Harris wrote that he went to President Cheddi Jagan to secure his payment. It didn’t appear that Jagan wasn’t moved. But wasn’t it the same Jagan who was accused of denying Balram Singh Rai what Harris is entitled to? Isn’t this the same Jagan that we the younger generation were brought up to believe was a fair-minded man?
Why the PPP believes it will own Guyana forever is a thought that is unfathomable. We hope the PPP leadership holds a retreat and with the help of some intellectual talent out there in Diaspora, analyse with profound grasp the Obama victory in the US. The success of Obama is the largest indicator since civilization began that the unthinkable can happen. Should the PPP lose the next election, will a new government stop the pension of Martin Goolsarran and all the other state media personnel who faithfully served the PPP Government for nineteen years?
We hope that no such thing will ever happen. Before I go, I hope Adam gets his money but there are others like him. After 1992, the PPP dismissed quite a large number of public sector officials whom the party leaders believed were PNC supporters. Were they Guyanese?

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