Kennard’s kennedya. Guyana’s guayacan

Mar 17, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I really got to know the Guyanese society when I became a university freshman. Prior to that, I was an emaciated, disheveled, dirt poor, black-skinned boy from Durban Street, Wortmanville living on the edge. I had some exposure before I went into UG because I was a part of the Movement Against Oppression (MAO) in Tiger Bay and got an opportunity to talk to people like Clive Thomas, Josh Ramsammy, Andaiye etc.
It was at MAO, I met Brian Rodway who had undue influence on me. I think my anti-bureaucratic bohemian style came from my admiration of Brian.
My real awakening began as a history major at UG. There I got entry into the room of Guyanese society beyond the Turkeyen campus. While a student at UG, the WPA as an organization was born and I was fortunate to be part of it. What I saw of Guyanese society from thereon was very disappointing.
Back then, I thought that Guyana needed saving. I still do, but maybe it would never be saved. Dialectically, there is nothing that could make Guyana have or not have a future. People make the dialectic, as Jean Paul Sartre always said, and therefore I believe we can still change Guyana.
What I saw from 1974 when I went into UG and the WPA was a tragic country with tragic forms of hypocrisy. Nothing has changed since then. Yes, people have shown courage in trying to transform Guyana and in the process they have changed some of us. Some of us have taken up where they have left off and the cycle goes on.
Brave ones have fought and we should never be insulting, cynical, flippant or even forgetful about their sacrifice. The list is too long to mention, but surely Walter Rodney comes in for special commendation.
From 1957 to 2013, indomitable Guyanese have fought authoritarian governments in the name of justice and human rights but half a century after, we must still ask some heart-breaking questions; can this country bring freedom to its people? Can the poor ever have justice? Can there ever be a secure future for this angst-riddled nation?
It is still fresh in our memory, so we are yet to internalize the horror of it, but the meagre price put on the life of three innocent protestors shot to death by the police in a demonstration last year in Linden points clearly to the fact that the fifty-year-old post-colonial tragedy of Guyana rages on in all its tempestuous fury.
I know some readers may object to the strange caption of this column, but it refers to the hard position of Justice Kennard and the hard heart of this nation. We are yet to hear from Justice Claudette Singh on her opinion of the eight million Guyana dollars awarded to the relatives of the three murdered protestors, but Justice Kennard has defended it publicly.
Is it possible in today’s world for a man who once headed the judiciary of a CARICOM state to openly defend the award of 40 thousand American dollars (one million Guyana dollars equivalent to five thousand American) as compensation for the lives of three citizens? Can one’s imagination go so far as to contemplate such a primitive monstrosity? People who sue their governments for wrongful dismissal, accident due to neglect, and a whole range of other sins get more than US$40,000.
A scientist wrongly held in mistake for the Unabomber sued the American government and received US$2M.
The most bizarre bestiality of that award is that a protestor’s life was worth two million dollars while a businessman was assigned $400,000 for a damaged truck by the same commissioners. This is what Guyana has come to. In literature we call this a Kafkaesque nightmare.
The award has been made, Justice Kennard has defended his role in the amount decided upon, and Roger Luncheon has exclaimed that the sum will not be upped. If you think that is hard to accept, then what about the attitude of the Guyanese people. Can any nation be so hard-hearted?
We are beginning to see the fading of this injustice. Guyanese are getting on with their lives. They are so heartless that they are prepared to show no emotion, no feeling, no protest on the final insult of our post-colonial masters. The compensation is ironic and reminds us of how less caring our non-white governors are than the white man.
I believe the colonial governor would have asked London to pay far more than US$40,000. Our next show of excitement is the budget debate. Then the scene moves to some other form of governmental depravity and gone from our memory will be the tragedy of three lives that were worth eight million Guyana dollars.

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Kennard’s kennedya. Guyana’s guayacan

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