Amanza Walton-Desir and my experience with Roysdale Forde

Dec 17, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – Of all the irrational things Khemraj Ramjattan has uttered, the one that I think that has generated dislike for him among Guyanese Indians was his description of Amanza Walton-Desir (AWD) after she condemned the PPP supporters (which of course everyone knows mean Indians) as being mentally lazy and allow the PPP to think for them and they accept what the PPP tells them. Ramjattan said she is the kind of politician the world needs.
I believe AWD was very insensitive and insulting to Indian people. What was morally reprehensible about Ramjattan’s declaration was the existence of a scientific fact that proved AWD wrong. A percentage of Indian people, that supported the PPP and always voted for the PPP, gave their ballots to the AFC in 2006, 2011 and 2015.
The continued existence in politics of Ramjattan and AWD without an apology is bound to hurt both of them. Guyana does not have to worry about Ramjattan. The AFC is dead and Ramjattan’s presence in politics is over even if he formally goes over to the PNC. It is AWD who will be a problem.
If AWD wins the chairmanship, more internal combustions will occur in the PNC because the new PNC leader as a requirement for staying in the eyes of Guyanese will have to constantly monitor her chairmanship. If she succeeds as chairman the capacity of the leader to seek cross-ethnic support in the future will be onerous.
In announcing her contest for the second position in the PNC hierarchy, AWD shows that she wants to be elevated in the political life of Guyana. None of the three competitors for power – Harmon, Norton and Van-West Charles have touched on Burnham. Even Van-West Charles declined to talk about Burnham, his father-in-law. They are sensible enough to know two things – The young Guyanese population knows nothing about Burnham, and secondly given Burnham’s controversial era, it is best to leave the subject untouched.
On the contrary, AWD waxed lyrical about Burnham. Is this the person Guyanese want to be second in charge of a powerful force like the PNC? Only two national figures have consistently proclaimed their heroic admiration for Burnham in public. One is David Granger, former president. He is going on to his late seventies. The other is 70-year-old Vincent Alexander.
If, as a future PNC leader, you are going to secure the embrace of young Guyanese it is best to stay away from eulogising Burnham. The late dictator was and is bad news for Guyana. As history moves on, and the younger generation of Guyana gets younger, Burnham’s atrocities and his role in the assassination of Walter Rodney are constantly coming to the surface. No competent historian will paint a positive portrait of Burnham. Such an art is not possible.
There are mistakes that politicians make and many of these sordid lapses get lodged in the deep chasms of people’s mind and people will never forget them and they haunt those politicians forever. The example of Eusi Kwayana is potent. At age 10, I heard people criticising Kwayana for advocating racial partition of the country. To this day, I still hear that refrain. No one in this world will ever forget the things Hamilton Green did to Guyana. Even the current PNC leadership keeps its distance from Green.
Do you know one of the current leaders of the AFC in June last year, when the election drama was playing out, advocated the Kwayana formula and only Dr. Vincent Adams showed his rejection? None of our so-called journalists has ever asked the AFC pyramid about this horrible advocacy. That AFC advocate is an African Guyanese.
AWD’s opponent for the chairmanship is a friend of mine I have known for over 25 years – Roysdale Forde (wonder if he still considers me a friend). As I wrote before, many years ago he gave me the computer I am using to produce this column. I met Roysdale in circumstances that were disadvantaged to me. And he endangered his job prospects by helping me.
I had taken UG to court for not making the admission of law applicants transparent. The court ruled I should have sued the head of the faculty not the head of the law department
The judge, Winston Moore granted a large sum of cost. My lawyer, Anil Nandlall appealed the cost asking for $50,000 instead of the award of $250,000. Roysdale, working with Mr. Rex McKay’s chambers, was instructed to oppose the reduction. He didn’t and Justice Perry of the appellate court reduced it to $100,000. I think Mr. McKay was annoyed and upbraided Roysdale. I think Roysdale left the McKay chamber not long after.
(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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