What are truths? We may never know but here are some

Apr 16, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – Truth no. 1 – Gregory Smith concealed an explosive mechanism in a walkie-talkie and it exploded and killed Walter Rodney in the car with his brother, Donald, who almost died. President Burnham then ordered Donald to be charged for possession of ammunition. He was sentenced to jail by PNC-aligned Magistrate, Norma Jackman (deceased).
Donald’s appeal was not heard until 40 years after and he was acquitted last Tuesday. The appeal came up during the government of the PPP and Donald was represented by a PPP parliamentarian, attorney, Sanjeev Datadin. When the WPA got in power as part of the government in 2015, it received requests from certain diaspora academics who were Walter Rodney’s friends to facilitate a withdrawal of the conviction through the AG writing a letter to the DPP.
WPA leaders like Drs. Maurice Odle, Rupert Roopnaraine and Clive Thomas, Wasir Mohamed, Messrs. Desmond Trotman and Tacuma Ogunseye and Ms. Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, who drank at the trough of power from May 2015 to July 2020, owe Donald Rodney an obligation to reveal the truth why the conviction was not squashed. The proposal was never put to Cabinet by the WPA.
T2 – Christopher Ram wrote in June 13, 2020 in a newspaper letter that he was part of the WPA election campaign in 2015. He stated, “The WPA accepted the rejection of Roopnaraine’s appointment to the Environment Ministry on spurious grounds. I know this because I was a witness to those grumblings.” Here is why Roopnaraine was removed.
A certain foreign advisor to the AFC with links to the PNC’s leadership personally asked President Granger to assign Roopnaraine another ministry. His reason was shocking. He said that such an important ministry should go to an African Guyanese and not an East Indian whose loyalty to the PNC is not solid. A certain AFC big wig conveyed this crassness to the AFC leadership but the AFC failed to discipline its advisor because the AFC hates Roopnaraine.
T3 – The AFC signed the renewed Cummingsburg Accord weeks before the 2020 election, which contained a clause that stipulates that in the event there is a vacancy in the presidency, the AFC will overlook the constitution and not fill the presidency by the AFC’s prime minister. How do I know this? I saw the document.
T4 – If the APNU+AFC had retained power in March 2020, the decision was made before the election to make Roysdale Ford the new Attorney General.
T5 – Throughout the 2020 campaign of the APNU+AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan and Moses Nagamootoo were not on speaking terms. Ramjattan felt deeply hurt that Nagamootoo agreed to retain the PM position if they were returned to power when it was agreed long before 2020 that it was Ramjattan’s turn in 2020.
T6 – The PNC named five persons that it suspected would have voted for the no-confidence motion (NCM). All five were Indians. Two from the AFC and three from APNU. The names did not include Charrandass Persaud. The PNC’s Chief Whip, Amna Ally, called an emergency meeting at the Office of the President and dressed down all the APNU+AFC parliamentarians.
One of the three personalities from the APNU told me at a rendezvous one night at the back of Giftland Mall that he was so annoyed that he was under suspicion that he conveyed his anger to President Granger.
T7 – The PNC hierarchy made up its mind that it will lose the NCM if it didn’t remove the five Indians. But the law says only the representative of the list can request the Speaker to remove a parliamentarian. Granger was not the representative of the list but Dr. Harold Lutchman. They couldn’t find Lutchman at the time; he was not in Guyana. It was for this reason Granger insisted in 2020 that he be the representative of the list.
T8 – Dr. Vincent Adams showed strong disgust with a leading African AFC leader who suggested during a zoom meeting of the executive committee, when the election crisis was going on, that given all the racial lava that was spilling then, the two major races should divide Guyana. To date the AFC has remained silent and the abominable, diabolical, deceitful Ethnic Relations Commission never asked the AFC for a response.
T9 – An African, Guyanese businessman expressed penetrating chagrin at Dr. Clive Thomas for paying millions monthly to one of the richest families in Guyana for housing the head office at SARA. I can vividly recall him saying to me, “Freddie, I am a Black supporter of this government. I got a building that I can rent them at a cheaper cost. What is wrong with these people man?”

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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