I left Guyana and never returned

Mar 26, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
I remember Freddie Kissoon and Dr. Ian Robertson in the Guyana I left in 1984.
I am sixty six years of age. I am a Black Guyanese who holds American citizenship. I am long gone from Guyana. I left in 1984. I have not returned since then though while I was married my husband repeatedly visited. All my friends that I interacted with over the past twenty years have occasionally returned. My experience was one that they missed and the politics of the WPA is the factor.
I was a big supporter of the WPA. It was through the WPA I became a friend of Freddie Kissoon as students at UG. I was never interested in politics until National Service was introduced in 1976 on the campus. It was a bitter experience for me. I never could have imagined when I joined UG to read for a degree in English, I would be doing military duties deep in the interior of Guyana.
What left a bitter taste in my mouth was my encounter with the people who worked in the office of the Ministry of National Development at UG. I made my opposition vocal. My position was that it should have been optional with those who didn’t want to go allowed to pay a fee increase or give those who volunteered automatic scholarship or big jobs in the public sector.
I came from a strong Christian background and my parents were furious that this thing came upon UG so suddenly.
At the time none of my siblings or parents had any interest in politics. As a student at UG the WPA was very active and I found Walter Rodney’s criticism of President Burnham attractive. For me Rodney had to be right about President Burnham because look at what he was doing to UG.
I served at Kimbia and my experience was terrible. President Burnham had to be mad to just throw people from different backgrounds into the military without the necessary training by the officers.
I would say National Service went wrong because the military men did not know how to interface with the students. Request for sex was an open secret. I told my father about this and here is where my bitter experience comes in.
My father who was from the Ministry of Agriculture went to President Burnham to talk to him about the errors of administration in the National Service. I will not publish what Mr. Burnham said to my dad but there and then my parents became political. I finished my degree and went into teaching. By that time I became a full-fledged supporter of Walter Rodney and kept my friendship with people I met at UG like Freddie KIssoon.
My parents migrated in 1982 with their three children. We went first to the Bahamas then the US. I have no interest in Guyanese politics because I feel successive leaders have let the Guyanese people down. My admiration goes out particularly to Freddie Kissoon. He is a super-human to have remained the same person I met in 1974. I would love to sit down and chat with him. I remember him so vividly at UG; so wild, so carefree but so committed.
I am writing this letter because the news from Guyana does not encourage me to visit. I read about oil money and I wonder if Guyana will eventually see its rainbow. If I didn’t know Freddie Kissoon, I would not have read the Guyanese newspapers online but Freddie made a lasting impression on me as a student at UG and I follow what he does and says through the Kaieteur News.
I read the newspapers and discuss with my daughter in Canada the Guyana her mother and father came from. I feel I may have unwittingly influenced her from visiting the land her parents were born into. I still have fond memories of Dr. Ian Robertson who taught me. I would like to know where he is if he is still alive. I would consider 66 as not old at all. So I may come back. If I do, I hope what I see entices me to come again.
Deidre Stuart

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