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Guyana’s revolutionaries are departing this world without a simple word of thanks from Guyana

Feb 17, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
I join other Guyanese who mourn the passing of Dr. Josh Ramsammy, and extend my sympathies to his family. I consider myself one of those whose formative years were immensely enriched by close contact with Josh and his generation of fighters.

The courage and commitment to our collective freedom shown by Dr Josh Ramsammy, Dr Walter Rodney, Kathy Wills, Bissoon Rajkumar, Dianne Matthews, Eusi Kwayana, Dr Clive Thomas, Dr Rupert Roopnarine, Andaiye, Bonita Bone-Harris, Brian Rodway, Malcolm Rodrigues, Tacuma Ogunseye, Jocelyn Dow, Maurice Odle, Moses Bhagwan and others not so well known drew a cadre of younger people to a similar commitment to social justice.

The public political exploits of these men and women are, to some extent, well known by those who lived through the 70s and 80s. But what is not so well known is the direct and indirect mentoring they provided to the younger activists in and around the WPA. We became a family.

I will not be telling tales out of school if I reveal that we, the younger activists, had our favourites, and that Josh was high on that list largely because he was, despite his accomplishments, always a regular brother. This quality was most evident when he was on the Corentyne, a part of Guyana that he knew like the palm of his hands, and could effectively communicate with.

I know that Josh did not think of himself and his political contributions as anything extra-special. But that does not mean he was not special. He was. But there is something sickening about Guyana that marginalises its special talents if they are not Burnhamites or Jaganites. Josh’s death is yet another reminder of how much Guyana has degenerated, despite our much exalted democracy.

We have been reading about organisations like Ratoon, Movement Against Oppression (MAO) and the WPA. But how many Guyanese below 35 years know of the priceless contributions of these organisations and their leaders to holding our nation together at a critical juncture?

Today, those like Josh, who toiled in the dangerous trenches of the 1970s and 1980s, are faceless and nameless. If they dare criticise today’s political gods or the political kingdom, they are subjected to the worst ridicule by the agents of officialdom.

I claim no special treatment for my comrades, but my heart beats with anger when a Josh Ramsammy departs this world without a simple word of thanks from Guyana and its government. After all, he took a near fatal bullet so that those who now masquerade as our foremost leaders can have what they call their government.

The unkindest cut I scream for all to hear. But God nah ah sleep. In the final analysis, we are all of us, and as someone wisely said, we are all we have.

Farewell, Josh. And say hello to Walter, Ohene, Dublin, Brain, John, Benjie, Holder, Chan and the other radical angels. Be sure to tell them it still rough and dread in Guyana.
With much indignation, I sign my name.
David Hinds

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