WPA pleads for extension of CoI

Jul 29, 2015 News

Breaking its silence, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) yesterday made a stirring plea to the coalition government it forms part of, to allow for a chance for there to be closure from the death of its co-founder, Dr. Walter Rodney.
WPA’s attorney and party member, Christopher Ram, made it clear that the party does not believe that the government’s decision was a right one.

Late WPA Leader, Dr. Walter Rodney

The lawyer asked for the life of the commission to be granted a two-week extension for public hearings.
He said of concern is that after 35 years, Guyanese and the wider community of persons who admired Dr. Rodney’s political activism and scholarship wish to put an end to the speculation that he was adventurist, careless and foolhardy, and that he died by misadventure, negligence and all the other pejorative terms that deny the simple truth of his assassination.
Evidence was taking by the Commission over 67 sessions spanning sixteen months, but to date there are crucial witnesses who never had an opportunity to testify. There are also those who have been handed “salmon letters”, like former People’s National Congress Leader, Robert Corbin; Minister of Education and Working People’s Alliance Leader, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine.
Salmon letters are designed to give people potentially facing direct criticism from an official inquiry a chance to reply before a report is published.
Lawyers have already argued that the imposed deadlines would not allow for those witnesses who will be brought for private hearings to be thoroughly cross-examined.
Ram said that the party recognised the right of the executive to bring the evidence gathering phase of the Commission’s work to an abrupt end, but the WPA did not feel it was the right decision.
He said that Commissions of Inquiry has an important role to play in every society and it would be very unfortunate if the truncation of the Commission’s work undermines public confidence in such a useful process of democracy.
“There is nothing that will render this exercise a waste of public resources more than an inconclusive finding by the Commission,” Ram stated.
The lawyer made clear that while the WPA does not encourage or condone waste of public resources, “it would be a sad day when democracy, the search for the truth and the opportunity for healing and reconciliation, are measured only in dollars and cents.”
Democracy, he said, is an expensive proposition “but surely not half as expensive as the alternative, as the events of the period leading up to and including the three years, 1978 to 1980, so amply testify.”
The lawyer said had democracy and the rule of law themselves not been truncated during that period, “as the evidence has so vividly and tragically shown, we would have been spared not only the monetary expenses incurred in seeking the truth now, but perhaps less trauma as a country.”
Further, Ram intimated that the country may well not be confronting now the same old demons of extra-judicial killings and other excesses of this period.
The WPA, the lawyer indicated, supported the application by Counsel for Donald Rodney for an extension of between one and two weeks to allow the Commission to hear evidence from the handful of key individuals still to complete giving or to give their evidence.
Thus far, Queen’s Counsel, Andrew Pilgrim, who stands on behalf of Dr. Rodney’s immediate family, and the Guyana Trades Union Congress, have voiced concerns over the new government’s refusal to allow any more witnesses to publicly testify.
Citing the need for fairness and impartiality, on Monday, the family of the late politician lobbied for two more weeks to be dedicated to the public hearings. The only party involved in the inquiry that has expressed full support for the curtain to come down on the commission, is the People’s National Congress (PNC), the larger party that forms part of the ruling coalition.
Yesterday, Ram told Commissioners “Even if we are unable to prevail on the Executive to make this eminently reasonable concession, we are satisfied that as a result of the fair and thorough manner in which the Chairman and his two other Commissioners have conducted these hearings, that firm conclusions can still be made on each of the five terms of reference.”
Of note, Chairman Sir Richard Cheltenham had on Monday warned that with the imposed deadlines, there are terms of reference which may remain incomplete. While he assured of independent findings, he warned that the decision of the executive may have implications for the thoroughness of the Commission’s report.
Through Ram, the WPA said that it recognises that no finding will wipe away the grief and pain endured by Rodney’s wife Patricia, and children Asha, Kanini and Shaka, over the loss of Dr. Walter Rodney or the stigma borne by his brother, Donald Rodney arising from a criminal conviction.
He said Donald Rodney’s conviction was one of the most egregious miscarriages of justice from that era, “rivalled only by the ultimate injustice meted out to WPA activists Ohene Kaoma and Edward Dublin.”
They were killed within three months of each other and less than seven months before Dr. Rodney himself was killed “at the hands of agents of the State.” He spoke too of the treatment meted out to Father Drake who was similarly slain.
He reflected that when the Commission was announced, the WPA had concerns that it was established with a view by the then Government to serve its own political interest rather than to seek the truth about the death of one of its leaders.
He reflected that notwithstanding their reservations, WPA members and associates, including Karen DeSouza, Eusi Kwayana, Tacuma Ogunseye, Dr. Nigel Westmaas, Jocelyn Dow, Father Malcolm Rodrigues, Dr. Omawale, Mr. Rohit Kanhai and Donald Rodney presented scores of pages of witness statements and faced rigorous cross-examination, seeking truth.
The lawyer revealed that other WPA leaders had agreed to testify including Andaiye and Dr Rupert Roopnaraine.
“These were colleagues and comrades of Walter Rodney who knew him as a person, a patriot who shared a dream ‘for an active effort of the people for national reconstruction and national unity on the basis of commonsense, patriotism, decency and honesty’ as he so eloquently put it in a speech thirty-six years and one week ago, a speech reproduced in booklet form by the WPA with the title, The Struggle Goes On,” Ram recounted to a resounding round of applause.