From the Diaspora…RODNEY COMISSION OF INQUIRY, GIVE PRES. RAMOTAR SOME CREDIT FOR TRYING

Mar 09, 2014 News

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By Ralph Seeram

We are all familiar with the old saying “you can please some of the people all the time, but you can’t please all the people all the time”. President Donald Ramotar finds himself in this “Catch 22” situation, if he doesn’t do something he gets criticized, if he does something he gets criticized also. Seems like the poor chap can’t win for trying. Let’s take the Rodney Commission of Inquiry for instance, the man try to pick distinguished jurists from the Caribbean and still get criticized, by the opposition specifically by the PNC.
Could you imagine if he had drawn its members from Guyana?
It’s going on some 34 yrs since Rodney was murdered, too long for the majority of young Guyanese to know who he was, what a political force he was to the PNC dictatorship in the late seventies to his murder in 1980. But I will come back to Rodney after I get a few things off my chest, since we are speaking about justice here.
People may have justification in not trusting the justice system, and those who are supposed to administer it impartially.
Like the case that came into prominence this week where a Magistrate remanded someone to jail despite the fact that the Prosecutor informs the Magistrate that the charge is an error, this Magistrate was either intoxicated, or so intoxicated with power, that common sense went through the window.
This brings into question the quality of people being appointed Magistrates these days, are these people from “the bottom of the barrel of the legal profession” who cannot make it as a practicing lawyer? In the old days some prominent lawyers took on positions as acting Magistrates to help relieve the back up of cases, but on the whole, most Magistrates were described as “cuss case lawyers” who really could not make it as practicing attorneys. They took the Magistrate jobs for the steady pay and hopefully some “bribe money” to make up the low salary.
But back to the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry. Already PNC Basil Williams is finding fault with one of the Commissioners, I wonder if he is setting the stage as an excuse in the event the report comes out damaging to the PNC, now disguised as APNU.
I recall the period when Rodney came on the political scene during the late 70’s early 80’s.
It was a period of hopelessness for the Guyanese people. The PNC dictatorship was at its heights, the opposition PPP was powerless and toothless, they were not a force, and Burnham had reduced them to that. It was a time of great food shortage, and for the information of the young, we are talking of spending hours in a line in burning sun, for a pint of cooking oil, a few pounds of sugar, there was no flour, that was banned, kerosene oil and all of the food items young people take for granted today. This may sound alien to young people today, but some people had to use candy to sweeten their tea, yes it was that bad.
True we produced a lot of sugar and rice then, but most of it was exported to earn much needed foreign currency, so the lowest quality of rice was offered to the Guyanese public, can anybody remember “sifting” rice to get out the husks and black bits of rice before cooking?
Now not everybody suffered the same, like how the PPP award contracts these days, ‘if you know somebody who know somebody” you could get the good stuff without going into a line. Leon Dundas wherever you are I still thank you for letting me have my supply of good rice in those days.
So that was the situation when Rodney burst on the political scene. Here was a young man who challenged Burnham. He called Burnham all sorts of nasty names like King Kong at  one meeting I heard him tell the crowd everything Burnham touched turned to s**t. I recall when Rodney kept his meeting in New Amsterdam a PNC stronghold, thousands turned out to listen to him. I saw PNC thugs cut the PA Systems wires in front of helpless policemen to silence him, but did not. I witnessed his meetings on   the Corentyne, and believe me when I tell you that even Dr. Cheddi Jagan at that time didn’t draw that kind of crowd. The crowd was from all sections of the Guyanese society, all races Indian or Black, he seemed to be the unifying force Guyana was looking for. The cross section of the crowd he drew would be the envy of today’s political leaders.
At the time I came to the conclusion, this is the man to lead Guyana out or the morass it was in. Here is a man that stood up to the Kabaca; there is no question that the PNC was afraid of him.
Let me tell you a little story how afraid the PNC was afraid of him. I am not sure if I mentioned this before, after a meeting in New Amsterdam, Rodney and his WPA entourage including a member of the La Bennett family was booked to sleep at the Penguin hotel after the meeting. Pressure was brought to bear by the PNC on the La Bennett’s, the owners of the Penguin not to let Rodney and his entourage sleep there, including their close relative. It was already late into the night to look for alternative accommodation. Attorney at Law Malcolm Taharally who live obliquely across from where the meeting was held invited the entourage to sleep at his house. They all slept in his living room, I know, I was there in the living room.
Before Rodney was murdered I was two months away from leaving Guyana, I had mixed feelings, mixed emotions about leaving Guyana permanently for the US. When he died on that fateful day in June 1980 whatever hope I had for Guyana died also, there were no doubts anymore I had to take my family out of the PNC dictatorship. I left in August.
I am not sure what will come out of this Inquiry, it will bring some measure of closure to his family and supporters, and it is common knowledge who might have been responsible for his death, at least at that period of time. Most of the principal players are dead, real evidence might be hard to come by now, but any Inquiry is better than none.
I can tell you this in my view Donald Ramotar and the PPP don’t have much to worry about the finding of this inquiry. I can tell you who will – the PNC and all the cronies who are in bed with the PNC, now under the name APNU, the party that Rodney died for, the WPA. Politics do indeed make strange bedfellows. What do you think Walter is thinking now Rupert?

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