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A SMALL PRICE TO PAY FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION

Jun 19, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Last Saturday, June 13, 2015, marked the 35th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney. It rained heavily on that day, but even if there was sunshine, there were not going to be any wreaths laid or memorial services held to commemorate this anniversary.
Ten years ago, there were a series of commemorative events held in Georgetown to mark the 25th anniversary of Rodney’s death. During the course of those events, the wife of Dr. Rodney called on the then President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, to bring closure to Rodney’s death. The government decided that the best way to do this was to have a commission of inquiry.
The PNCR supported a call for a commission of inquiry. Ironically, the PPPC abstained on its own motion. The PPP then asked a member of the WPA to assist in the development of the terms of reference. The matter got stuck there for years, until during the Donald Ramotar administration, when there was again a request for the matter to be brought to closure. The Ramotar government established a commission of inquiry comprising three overseas-based legal luminaries.
The terms of reference of the commission of inquiry were broad. It included not just looking into the cause of the death, but also examining the period just before and after the assassination. This was necessary because you could not degut the assassination from the context in which it happened. There were some protests over this, but it would have rendered the commission of inquiry vacuous if it had to do its work without looking at the period just before and after the assassination.
No one expected the commission to be cheap. The commissioners from overseas had to be paid. Their expenses for sitting, travel and upkeep had to be satisfied. Therefore it had to have been obvious that the commission of inquiry would have cost a fortune.
The Linden Commission of Inquiry had to look into the events of a few days and that Commission cost over one hundred million dollars. So, it seems inexplicable that there has been surprise expressed over the cost of the Rodney commission of inquiry so far.
Whether the cost can be justified needs to be examined further. The period leading up to the death of Rodney was a period of great political oppression in Guyana. It was a period for which national healing is needed, because the State took on ominous dimensions during that period.
The price so far from the commission of inquiry is a small price to pay for healing and reconciliation. Guyanese have to ask themselves whether they want healing from the past. If they do, then there should be no complaints about spending a billion dollars for the commission of inquiry.
The inquiry, of course, had become a political embarrassment for the PNC. The evidence being led was hurting the PNC and hurting them badly. From very early the PNCR recognized the danger that the inquiry represented to their party and therefore they wanted it stopped. The PPP on the other hand wanted it to go on, because they were milking political capital out of the process. But that was an inevitable part of any inquiry.
Once the PNCR got into power it was expected that they would bring an end to the work of the commission. The PNCR was not expected to be in support of the continuance of the commission of inquiry. It was always expected that once a new government was voted in on May 11, this would mark the end of the commission of inquiry.
The new government has indicated that it will ask the Commission to wind up its work and give its ruling. This is ridiculous and an abuse of process. You cannot allow a Commission of Inquiry to establish its own rules and then tell it how to wind up its affairs. This is what the new government wants to happen. You cannot ask the commissioners to submit their decision based on incomplete evidence. There is still a far way to go before this matter can even be submitted.
Instead of calling for the commission to present its findings, the new government should have said to the commission that the country could no longer afford the cost of the commission and therefore it regretfully has to bring an end to the matter.

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