‘The Morning After’, cannot be blamed for the assassination of Ronald Waddell

Mar 16, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Last week, I was directed to an internet radio interview on Demerara Wave Internet radio with Mr. Mark Benchop, candidate for Mayor of Georgetown.
Among the many questions that were asked of Mr. Benchop, one was by interviewer Mr. Lloyd King. “Mr. Benchop, do you believe that the book, ‘The Morning After’, contributed to the demise of Mr. Ronald Waddell?” Mr. Benchop responded without hesitation, “…to this day I hold Mr. Eusi Kwayana on what he has written somewhat responsible for the assassination of Mr. Ronald Waddell …he gave the enemy fuel to go after Waddell…that book contributed to the death of Ronald Waddell!”
This writer recognises that Mr. Benchop is entitled to his opinion, but such opinion when deemed callous and reckless must be addressed. This accusation is being peddled in certain circles in Georgetown and has the potential to gain currency. Hence, the reason the question was put to Mr. Mark Benchop.
There are some in Georgetown who are looking for a ‘scapegoat’ to blame for the murder of Mr. Waddell, and since Bro Kwayana was among a few African Guyanese with the moral courage to speak out against the criminal political activities in Buxton and the fact that he documented such activities, they now see Kwayana as persona non grata, thus the charge against him.
This charge is utterly false against this person who has made tremendous sacrifice in the struggle for freedom and democracy in Guyana, a Guyanese hero and icon. Those that blame Kwayana for Waddell’s murder fail to realise or choose to forget that the counter movement had surveillance and intelligence capability and as such did not need a book from Kwayana for “fuel” to conduct their dirty war.
However, it has to be made lucid that the only people responsible for Mr. Waddell’s death are those who concocted the idea, ordered the execution and carried out the command.
It is baseless for Mr. Benchop and others to blame Bro. Kwayana because he wrote a book.
Anyone who has read “The Morning After” cannot in good conscience conclude that this book led to the assassination of Mr. Ronald Waddell. This is a vicious accusation, because one must remember that Mr. Waddell left behind family including children. To tell these children that the content of a book contributed to their father’s death are not only an egregious lie, it cheapens that death and removes from responsibility those involved.
“The Morning After” chronicled certain events that occur in Guyana, particularly Buxton, which culminated when the so-call ‘five for freedom’ broke out of prison, including what was termed by some at the time ‘Black liberation struggle.’ The proclaimed liberation struggle which had as its impetus, an advocacy to bring attention to the numerous cases of extra judicial killing of Black men in the society had degenerated into, as observed by Bro Kwayana, “a criminal political movement.”
The Morning After documented those activities and brought into focus some “known masterminds” who were integrally involved and who had precursory knowledge of the arming of youths in Buxton.
The information revealed in the book concerning Mr. Waddell was not a secret. The book detailed public statements and actions and sought to analyse such within the historical racial-political context in Guyana.
Anyone who has read the book would find no conclusion being drawn about Mr. Waddell. Bro. Kwayana states his disagreement with the public activities and statements as it relates to Waddell and his activities in Buxton. It is clear from reading the book that Bro. Kwayana found objectionable and dangerous the anti-Indian rhetoric that was put in the public domain by Mr. Waddell.
Bro. Kwayana had had experience with the results of such rhetoric and therefore found it appropriate to warn all and sundry. He also found objectionable, rightly so, the use of the village and the youths therein in a misguided political adventurism that resulted in many senseless deaths.
Bro. Kwayana has had cause on other occasions to document and argue against anti-African rhetoric from the other side in his book ‘No Guilty Race’, a book that garnered much praise and is quoted by the same people who now find The Morning After, abominable.
Mr. Waddell death must be seen within the context of the political events of the period.
The retaliation and targeting killings, as the evidence now show and the criminality that was harboured by the Government in defence of a perceived threat to the Government. No one deserves to be murdered in cold blood.
Those responsible must be brought to justice. Mark Benchop and others who claim to care about Ronald Waddell must use their energies to bring about the much deserved justice owed to his family.
This means gathering evidence and making such evidence public rather than placing blame. This was what the WPA did when Walter Rodney was murdered.
Kwayana began the preface of The Morning After with the following statement, “This small book comes from me with much pain and comes only because of a sense of duty. The sense of duty comes from my long years of activity in the politics of Guyana: some will say the Caribbean region.
The pain is there not only because the book is about Guyana, but because the epicenter of the unfortunate actions it examines was the village which I have called home ever since my elders left Lusignan Estate for Buxton when I was seven.”
It is this sense of duty for Kwayana that has guided his political consciousness and has informed his humanism in a society marred in racial politics.
Kwayana is on record championing the causes of both sides in the ethnic divide.
The pain Kwayana felt when he saw the destruction of his village is the pain many of us who share Buxton as our native and ancestral village felt.
Dennis Wiggins

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