Glen Hanoman writes about Roopnaraine and history is richer

Jun 24, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

---

Kaieteur News – Anyone who has read my analyses the past 32 years would know that I have literally begged people to respond publicly when things are written that involve their names so history is recorded and the next generation is further enlightened.
I have maintained that advocacy and will embrace it frenetically. My first degree is in history so I know the priceless value of recording history for posterity. I denounced Eusi Kwayana in one of my columns last year when he told Guyanese that he sat in court everyday during the trial of Donald Rodney who was convicted by “a certain magistrate.”
That was an immoral attempt to erase history. Kwayana should have stated, for those too young at the time to know, the name of the magistrate. I had to do that in my column. Her name was Norma Jackman (deceased), a barefaced jurist aligned to President Burnham at the time. At no time Kwayana mentioned that the prosecutor was Rex McKay. He was the same prosecutor in the political trial of Arnold Rampersaud. McKay was always very close to Burnham.
If Jamil Changlee did not write about the WPA’s role while in government about the closure of the sugar estates, readers may have accepted the lies by Tacuma Ogunseye that Clive Thomas had nothing to do with the situation when he was chairman of GuySuCo. One must understand that those who accepted what Ogunseye said would not have had the availability of Changlee’s facts if Changlee did not respond.
I urged one of the founders of the UK’s branch of the WPA, Leyland DeCambra, to record his interpretations as to why the present survivors of the WPA have degenerated so horribly in their betrayal of Walter Rodney. See his reflections in my column yesterday and more of his thoughts will be published soon. His interpretations have now become available and obviously will be added to the knowledge of those who want to know about their country’s history
We come now to the two names in the caption of this article. Glen Hanoman wrote in yesterday’s newspapers the following, “Rupert Roopnaraine, who was physically present at most of the hearings, and who was seen as an important witness, had consistently rebuffed my many efforts to take, or to himself provide, a short written statement to the Commission which was deemed to be a procedural prerequisite to testifying).”
The name, Rupert Roopnaraine is being stained daily with unsavoury accusations against him in two contexts – historical closeness to the PNC and alleged deceiving of the nation that Mrs. Patricia Rodney was not interested in a commission of inquiry into her husband’s death.
More accusation will pour in when I release the second part of the interview with DeCambra. So in the space of one week we have Ravi Dev, Glen Hanoman and Leyland DeCambra revealing unpleasant facts about Roopnaraine plus me publicising what Dr. Josh Ramsammy told me about Roopnaraine moons ago.
I have always distant myself from Rupert Roopnaraine since he returned to Guyana in 1976. I was never comfortable being a comrade of his. Something was not right about this gentleman. I felt it in my bones for two reasons. I grew up poor in south Georgetown so that environment brings you the gift of “street sense.” I was an academic, so that gives you the gift of intellectual capacity. When you combine the two, you see nuances, dimensions, threads and motifs others cannot detect. Of all the WPA leaders in the 1970s, I never got close to him.
Here is the part that I am imploring that Guyanese researchers, including PPP leaders who have been around since the 1980s, look into. Hanoman wrote that he wanted to summon Robert Corbin as a witness because of the implications of the testimony of others.
Roopnaraine and Corbin worked closely and literally between the two birthed APNU. Here is where a dangerous direction opens up an ocean of questions about Roopnaraine and his historical PNC connections. In founding APNU, Corbin knew he was riding away. There was only one serious contender – Carl Greenidge. Is it possible that it was Roopnaraine that persuaded Granger to take the PNC leadership? We all believe it was Corbin. Granger and Corbin had no enduring relation and weren’t even friends. Roopnaraine said in a public interview in 2017 that he and Granger go way, way back to the short-pants days at Queen’s College.
I have consistently talked, not about the missing link in the WPA, but in the plural – missing links. Is Roopnaraine one of those crucial parts of the puzzle? Do you know what I’m getting at?

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

---

---