Eusi Kwayana should repudiate his past for reconciliation

Oct 13, 2014 Letters

---

Dear Editor,
Historians are well aware that  “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”” as  George Santayana so wisely wrote.  When Mr Eusi Kwayana can completely clear his conscience  about his role in Guyana’s turbulent history,  similar visits  to  other Doobay Renal Centres  may dispense  need for his own Field of Akeldama.
The truth does indeed set one free.  “A person who admits being wrong, pays less”, has been a well known Ugandan proverb; no doubt a very good reminder for a  hefty deposit from Mr Kwayana for  –  the usual  black monument thing.  After his visit to the Doobay Renal Centre at Annandale, right next door to  Buxton, he ensured  it was made clear he was  invited by Dr Budhendranath Doobay, “the worthy pioneer of the project” who is  a devout Hindu  Brahmin physician residing in Canada.
Writing in the KN of 8-10-14 titled “Doobay Renal Centre- a beacon of hope” such “A visit seemed to me like a pipe dream” come through for the aging rebel on a  crutch.
That  Doobay Renal Centre can only continue to be  an excellent  credit to that  magnanimous Annandale  Indian Hindu family,  regardless  who visits, regardless of race.  Also  noteworthy is the aging Buxtonian pointing  out that it was not him, but  rather “Dr Doobay (who) had recalled what is lost to the wider history but what to small communities was important.
His father, the eminent Pandit Ramsahai Doobay, and I, a rural high school principal, separately accepted an invitation from the British Colonial Secretary, Mr Duncan Sandys during his fact-finding visit to Guyana in early July, 1963.
It was an invitation to meet at short notice on the big bridge between Buxton and Annandale and shake hands in the presence of large crowds from both villages, in order to help defuse tensions” due to the  destabilizing CIA financed TUC  80-day strike. Mr Kwayana played his role all too very well at that time to secure his objectives.
God does not make mistakes. So beloved were Indians who predominantly supported the PPP that God  first sent  his beloved son Jesus Christ,  (John 3;16)  to save them –  who  apparently failed?
Then on  further reflection  God promptly dispatched  his  two-also-much-dearly-beloved  Sandys and Kwayana to shake hands and make peace through  a Hindu Pandit?  God must have a very special interest in Guyana to have dispatched President  Jimmy Carter to ensure free and fair elections which saw the PNC removed and the Jagans  PPP/C re elected  in 1992!
That Annandale/Buxton orchestrated  drama did indeed take place and eased  political tensions. But the record  does not show that  Mr Kwayana himself  subsequently  became and remained any more  peacefully transformed by that specific  public political encounter with the venerated Hindu Pandit which he now extols.
Lamentably, no significant  proactive effort to influence UWI’s Dr Kean Gibson to withdraw her scurrilous  book attacking Hinduism after he originally shook the  eminent Pandit’s hand  has ever occurred. It would still be an awesome signal most welcome in gratitude for past Indian munificence wouldn’t it?
Denied “critical support”, by the opposition  African leadership,  most timely  when it is most needed by Indians  on such issues, it still remains  a nasty  blot, fogging up better  race relations in Guyana.  Indians  who were vilified for practising “pagan” religions, have  still endured  within and outside  Guyana.  The Doobays  have  demonstrably moved on. Their Renal Centre  has effectively debunked the  racism charges against their treasured  but maligned Hindu religious practices.
But  Dr Gibson’s book still continues to perpetuate falsehoods. Is this the best way to engender trust?  Mr Kwayana as a favoured  earlier dispatched divine  “ chosen one”, still alive, can  still work a miracle or two and restore our faith in local goods.
Now despite all the divine  truth which  the British and American archives have confirmed about  their accurate and active role in Guyana’s affairs,  how credible  is Mr Kwayana  misguided attempts to further hoodwink Guyanese about our history?
He still wants us to believe that  both  Anglo-American governments were  not, in cahoots, not guilty in destabilizing the PPP government with him as a star player? During that period  Mr Kwayana  specifically attacked Mr Burnham and the PNC for conceding that should the PPP win the 1964 elections they would be entitled to lead Guyana to independence.
Under his “creole meche meche” broadside  specifically blasting  the PNC for  “betraying black people and leading them into  a new slavery,” the PNC  promptly reversed its earlier commitment.
Moving  into  the 21st century, and please forgive me,  a  mentally disconnected Mr Kwayana  still perseveres  by publicly regurgitating private well intentioned conversation  to embellish and perpetuate fallacies in which he was conspiratorially involved.
How credible is Mr Kwayana who wants us to actually believe  that  “On Her Majesty’s Service” the Englishman Sandys by  “invitation  made separately”, with  both village elders , both  without any  available telephone  service but  just by mysterious “short notice”  (jhandi conch or talking drum transmittal ?) they were to coincidentally meet on “the big bridge”  and  “shake hands”  in the “presence of large crowds” (plural!)  from both villages, in order “to help defuse tensions”  after  the  CIA, with British approval, had massively financed  the  PNC- UF -TUC oppositions’ 80-day strike  to destabilize  the  1960s PPP government!
All the above many  American-British-Opposition  goals were  achieved, supposedly  without any advanced  premeditated planning both in the 1960s and 1900s if Mr Kwayana is correct?.
All  successfully and completely  achieved without  Mr Kwayana’s whatsoever  and whomsoever direct input?
Mr Kwayana will continue to  remain a consummate political performer should he succeed  anytime in convincing anyone that he was not in conspiracy with  his former ancestral colonial slave-master, both supposedly Gods own “redeeming divine peacemakers” sent get  rid of the PPP by a  symbolical hand shake proclaiming  peace on earth and goodwill among men with a  pious Hindu Pandit.
While that  1960s  barb wire fence which was erected  like a  Berlin Wall  symbolically separating  Buxton from Annandale was afterwards dismantled  it still remains embedded in some Buxtonians minds.  The PNC opposition which  the external forces wanted to win the 1964 elections  effectively took over, and  the rest became  all too familiar  Guyanese history.
Until our Kwayanas become courageous enough  to confess,atone and make reparations for our violent misguided past, Guyanese can only wander  in the desert for their  elusive promised land – despite what they still possess.
A more peaceful  future cannot continue to be held hostage by the those in  automatic destructive  mode.  The usual refrain is to say “yes we can!”  When the cocks  soon crow in parliament  we will know for sure  by which road  lies our destiny ahead.
Sultan Mohamed

---

---