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WHY DID RUPERT ROOPNARAINE OPEN UP?

Sep 28, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Where there is silence, there is bound to be speculation. And the silence that has accompanied the statement by one leader of the Working People’s Alliance that the party was accumulating weaponry just prior to the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney has caused its own speculation.
A number of theories are being bandied. None of which should be ignored even if none should be given credence without the requisite evidence.
The first theory is that the “confession” of the WPA was part of a deal that it is making within the main opposition in order to join forces with that party to contest next year’s elections.
There is no evidence whatsoever that the PNCR is interested in any deal with the WPA. The PNCR does not need the WPA since the latter will bring absolutely no numbers to any coalition. And it will not bring any credibility either considering that thirty years after the assassination of Walter Rodney, we are now hearing statements about the party having been in the process of accumulating weapons.
The PNCR does not need the WPA and therefore does not need to ask the WPA to make any such admission about the party’s covert activities during that period.
But while the PNCR does not need the WPA, the WPA needs a party to piggy back its way into parliament.
On its own the WPA cannot gain a seat in the National Assembly. It has no numbers to gain such a seat. In a straight fight between the WPA and the Justice for All, the WPA is going to lose. In a straight fight between the WPA and the half- dead United Force, the dead will rise and whip the WPA.
If tomorrow David Hinds were to go into Buxton and summon a meeting to criticise President Jagdeo’s recent visit to that community, he will not get more than twenty persons to attend. When it comes to numbers, the WPA is a spent force.
But could the realisation of this have caused the recent admission. In short is the WPA seeking to curry favour with the PNCR by opening up about the party’s past?
Not likely. The PNCR may not need the WPA. But the PNCR will willingly accept the WPA as a coalition despite the WPA’s almost non- existent constituency because the PNCR has nothing to lose and in fact may wish to show that it is open to an alliance with other parties by welcoming the WPA on board.
The WPA knows this and therefore would not be forced to making confessions just to get into bed with the PNCR.
The reason for the opening up by Rupert Roopnaraine may have to do with human nature. As one gets older, one begins to realise that one should not pass out from the world without helping future generations understand the truths about its political history, especially if one was a principal player during a period in that history.
Thirty years after the death of Dr. Walter Rodney, one of its leaders may have felt that it is time that important and previously withheld information be made known about the situation in the WPA just prior to his death. And so that leader presented with an opportunity to speak has spoken.
The problem is that this admission may have ironically put paid to whatever hopes that the family of Dr. Rodney may have had to bring closure to his death through an inquiry. Five years ago, the government agreed to undertake such an inquiry but it has been frustrated over the years. The inquiry has not been held and one feels that the WPA is not keen on having this inquiry.
With the statement now made by one of its leaders, it is difficult to see how the party can during any such inquiry avoid cross- examination about its weapon- accumulation activities in that period.
With the inquiry now permanently shelved, if the party is interested in Guyanese learning the lessons from its past, it should open up about what happened.
Right now, though, it seems that the party is hushing itself up because despite all the publicity and no doubt interest in what has been said, the party has so far to make a formal statement about what one of its leaders said.
For the sake of the historical record, the party needs to come clean even if this means exposing a not too impeccable past.

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