Guyanese really know who “murdered” Walter Rodney
DEAR EDITOR,
I refer to an Open Letter (SN, January 21, 2021) to the Chancellor “The Court Proceedings of Walter Rodney and Donald Rodney in dire need of justice”. Like the signatories, there is this desire to bring the issue of Dr. slaughter. Walter Rodney emerges, otherwise known as an “adventure” by those in the PNC government of the day.
One of the first acts of the APNU + AFC coalition government led by David Granger was to bring to an end the Rodney Commission of Inquiry. Despite the helpless attempt to disguise this important investigation to find a real closure, the Guyanese people were / were not fooled. Guyanese really know who “murdered” Walter Rodney.
While I welcome this Open Letter, I have some reservation vis-à-vis some of the cosigners who will be anonymous at this time. But I will refer to a few individuals who appear to portray themselves as WPA people, or Rodneyites.
WPA signatories (and sympathizers) should be ashamed to attach their names to this letter. At the end of the day Walter Rodney and the WPA party were betrayed by WPA people, lock, stock and barrel. Unnecessarily WPA became part of the APNU + AFC Coalition, arm in arm, lying in bed with the party presumed to be the perpetrator of Walter Rodney’s vicious and barbaric demise.
Now, unfortunately, some of his fellows seem to lack a solid ideological / philosophical / political base! They turned out to be double dealers who betrayed the cause of a truly great Guyanese, a truly great man whose life was dismissed in the prime of his life.
Walter Rodney had so much to offer. He was the savior of Guyana, the mess for true change based on nonpartisan, non-racial, grassroots activism – whose humanity was rooted in research, etiology and truth, shaped in a way that the complex is very simple for the masses. For this he was murdered ignorantly.
Then come these teachers and activists speaking on his / her behalf! It’s easy for me to say why they betrayed the case. I know almost all of them personally. Then I thought they were really good people, and I really respected them.
Martin Carter talked about ‘food’, ‘mouth’, ‘eating’. These individuals were not ordinary poor. They didn’t need dirty, polluted food to live. Then, again, food comes in different forms – gravy or soup that is usually rumored for its energetic and sustaining longevity. Yes, the soup was flowing, delicious, and hard to resist – for those with weak minds and a duplicate disposition. They became exploiters, or basically Guyana big time soup drinkers.
Do I sound nasty and angry? You bet I am. I’m crazy as hell. Sorry, there are no nice euphemisms in my vocabulary for the time being. These individuals, who will remain anonymous but who know who they are, and who are now trying to sanitize their images, should exclude themselves from this Open Letter. They turned out to be bedfellows with the perpetrators of Walter Rodney’s murder. During the five months of election rigging they were / are guilty of being involved in the rigging process – by their individual and collective silence – albeit in footnotes. Rohit Kanhai perfectly addressed the question of election fraud. (KN, March 09, 2020).
I do not want to distract from the laudable objectives of the other honorary signatories. I apologize for any awkwardness and discomfort. And while I am encouraging, I am also distressed and disappointed.
Correctly,
G. Girdhari