THE Rodney Commission of Inquiry is constrained to limit the time period of its examinations of Guyana’s socio-political dynamics to within a two-year period to include 1980 – the year Dr. Walter Rodney was assassinated.However, Guyana’s history of PNC-engineered and driven violence is not limited to that truncated period, but has been a recurring nightmare in the annals of this country’s history since the plot between the US/UK/and Forbes Burnham to depose the legitimately-elected first government under the PPP was hatched. And that was when the ‘X-13 Plan’ to unleash terror in the land to force Dr. Cheddi Jagan to concede to terms inimical to his party and the nation so that the killings, burnings, looting, rapes and absolute destruction and chaos in the land would cease.

Thus it was that those who owned the dogs of war could call off those dogs after Dr. Jagan’s Government was ousted out of office, paving the way for a Burnhamite arrangement in government to eventuate.

While Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee was constrained by the stricture of the timeframe imposed on the Rodney COI, during his appearance before the Presidential Commission investigating the political assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney, cognisance must be taken that reports on his testimony should not be limited to that period when the history of violence in the country is being alluded to, as if the violence against the Guyanese people only occurred with the period of 1978 – 1980.

When President Ramotar indicated his intention to establish a Commission to bring closure to this decades-long sore of Walter Rodney’s assassination on the Guyanese psyche, leaders of his own party, the WPA showed reluctance for the establishment of such a Commission. This was understandable because of their intertwined political fortunes in a conjugal bed of convenience and political expediency with the very persons and party accused of the murder of the brilliant and charismatic Dr. Rodney.

Commissioners Sir Richard Cheltenham of Barbados, Jacqueline Samuel-Brown of Jamaica and Jairam Seenauth of Trinidad and Tobago began their investigations procedurally and the revelations coming out of those findings are stunning to those not au fait with the atrocities that transpired during the PNC dictatorial regime.
However, while the Commission is not allowed to investigate beyond its mandatory timeframe, it is imperative that the nation is made aware that this is a recurrent theme and strategy of the PNC – violence and trickery to wrest power and keep power in the country.
Recent occurrences in Agricola and Linden; as well as intermittent murderous forays throughout the country, simultaneous to Opposition intra and extra-parliamentary actions and rhetoric are indications that this has not changed.
So it is fallacious to constrict the timeframe of PNC atrocities against the Guyanese nation to within the period of 1978 – 1980.