“Journey into ignominy”, a play by the WPA

Mar 20, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There are several WPA stalwarts, that if I didn’t meet them I am uncertain how my politics would have turned out. It was a radical moment for me in the seventies from which I have not taken a detour.
There was Brian Rodway (deceased) who helped with my fees on entering UG. Brian had a bohemian, anarchist style about him, which is cemented in the prison walls of my mind. Clive Thomas stands out as one who influenced me, so too did Moses Bhagwan.
David Hinds, Nigel Westmaas and Tacuma Ogunseye, I have a personal affiliation with. Eusi Kwayana has left a deep impression on all the young WPA activists who interacted with him. There is also the iconic Andaiye.
With the exception of Brian, these people are alive and are active. They are intrinsically WPA personalities.
How then can they explain the optimistic journey of the WPA from greatness in the seventies to humiliating existence inside the APNU kingdom? And why are they in tolerance mode in that kingdom rather than asserting their quintessential ideological beliefs in the Government of Guyana? This is certainly one of the most disgraceful moments in Guyana’s political history.
As it stands today, the WPA has no moral standing to criticise any organisation or individual in this country.
Enter Act 1, Scene 1. The WPA’s undignified, disgraceful conduct began when Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine was moved from the Ministry of Education. The nation found out by a public confession by the WPA that the WPA was not consulted about its choice of minister but that Roopnaraine was chosen. President Granger denied that.
It was a public spat with one party telling the truth and the other was not. Who is misleading the nation? Act 2, Scene 1 – Roopnaraine resigned and the WPA met to choose his replacement in government. Act 2, Scene 2 – Tabita Sarabo has been named by the WPA to replace Roopnaraine.
Act 3, Scene 1 – Roopnaraine withdrew his resignation. Act 3, Scene 2 – the WPA told the nation that it did not know of Roopnaraine’s change of heart; he did not inform his party. Act 4, Scene 1 – Roopnaraine remains the WPA assignee to the government but his role is very opaque.
He is supposed to be the Minister of the Public Service but the country doesn’t hear about him, and he seldom goes to work because he is not in the best of health.
Act 5, Scene 1 – the WPA knows about this but for some esoteric reason accepts Roopnaraine as its representative in the government.
Act 6, Scene 1 – the Chronicle has dropped Dr. Hinds, one of the top leaders in the WPA and the WPA’s public face as a Chronicle columnist. Act 6, Scene 2- the WPA issued a trenchant denunciation of what the Chronicle did.
Act 6, Scene 3 – Minister Joe Harmon said the government would not intervene; it is a matter for the Chronicle and its board.
Act 6, Scene 4 – Harmon is speaking for the government but WPA is part of the government and runs the state along with the AFC and other parties in the APNU outfit.
Act 6 Scene 5, some people want to know how the WPA could be part of the government, wants one of its leaders to continue to write as a Chronicle columnist but an APNU minister says the government will not intervene.
Act 6, Scene 6 – observers are asking what then the role of the WPA is in the government.
Act 7, Scene 1- the WPA is calling on the president to state his position on the Chronicle issue. Act 7, Scene 1- all eyes are on the WPA because if the President doesn’t state his position on the Chronicle event, the WPA may pull out of the APNU arrangement.
Act 8, Scene 1- if the co-leaders of the WPA are Roopnaraine and Clive Thomas and the WPA’s defiant press release is written in the name of the entire WPA’ leadership then there is a split between one Cabinet member, Roopnaraine and another, Joe Harmon.
Enter 8, Scene 2- the media is yet to ask Harmon to explain this contradiction. Act 8, Scene 3- the press is seen asking Thomas about the GuySuCo Board contretemps and the progress of SARA and he speaks in those issues but the press doesn’t talk to Thomas about the WPA’s role in government.
In the final act and the final scene, we see a dishonourable, dishonest, disgraceful WPA holding a placard with the visage of Walter Rodney asking him not to turn in his grave.

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“Journey into ignominy”, a play by the WPA

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