Mr.  EUSI  Kwayana,  in a letter to Stabroek News on 4-4-2011 titled “ Dr Persaud’s response to Dr Bulkan’s ‘diaspora’ column did not uplift the rulers’ political culture”, is very fascinating for his own tribalism tantrum in defence of “post emancipation” lands.
Mr. Kwayana is always a prominent, vigilant defender of African rights in what he obviously now means African, not Guyanese lands.

Posing like a supreme judge, he would like to believe he alone decides and decrees what and who has “nothing to do with the incitement of ‘extremism’ let alone hatred” in this quest.

Can anyone fault Mr. Kwayana for seeking to protect what he considers “his”, reasserting claims to what is “ours” of the common patrimony in Guyana?  It is remarkable to witness Mr. Kwayana’s  intense and passionate commitment in  championing Black causes without absolutely any equal representation amongst our  ‘girley’ Indian spokesmen, example,  Dr Rupert Rupnarine, Moses Bhagwan, Christopher Ram, Peter Ramsaroop,  etc. What is so shameful about these ‘Indian’ heroes genesis that shapes and sustains their existence? Do they know better?

One must take note when Mr. Kwayana informs us that “one feature of the (Jagdeo) President’s land deals not yet raised is of interest to me as a villager. How did the front lands of Sparendaam, a post-emancipation village become available for gentrification by the new upper class?  Part of Sparendaam front once housed the transmission tower for GT&T. (He means radio?) The police station and the post office are on that side of the public road.  If lands were available there, why was the fact not known publicly so that perhaps Plaisance-Sparendaam people could have a chance of buying”?

(1) Now Mr. Kwayana may first explain, let’s say the “option” rather than “right” of people to buy even if they are obviously not from Plaisance-Sparendaam. All Guyanese have equal rights; Mr. Kwayana would agree. Indeed,  his family and others participated in such sales.  The King (Mr. Kwayana’s) family was originally from Lusignan and did not financially motivate Buxton’s post-emancipation status. Any evidence to the contrary would need examination. How did his family therefore get ownership of their Buxton holdings to which they did not originally contribute?  In fact, Mr. Kwayana’s good family friend Pandit Sama Persaud and his father Pandit Latchman Persaud  (who apparently subsidized the King family) and many other Indians predate Mr. Kwayana’s extended family in their ownership of lands in the same Buxton. Why did Mr. Kwayana’s one time Indian friends find “legitimacy” in buying Buxton’s self-emancipated lands and this is not acceptable for others in Sparendaam?

(2) Or does Mr. Kwayana consider all those Indian Buxtonians interlopers who overstayed their welcome as theirs was an irritating, unholy presence eating curds and whey sitting on his tuffet? Can the big black spider spin a web of innocence when they were all frightened away during the ethnic cleansing exodus from Buxton in the 1960 riots? Many Indians owned lands in other black villages and did not feel the level of black wrath like those who suffered in Buxton in the 1960s.   No other self-emancipated village had a comparable Kwayana as Buxton’s transplant. No one can doubt that Mr. Kwayana’s presence and metamorphosis amongst Indians in Buxton was a significant major factor which fed anti-Indian hatred locally and nationally. Mr. Kwayana is not as innocent as he likes to portray himself.

It should also explain why Buxton alone eventually degenerated into its current decline to harbour the Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins gang who terrorized the neighbouring villages of Annandale, Enterprise and Lusignan.

Who other than Mr. Kwayana is responsible for nurturing and shaping the focus of Buxton’s anti-Indian violence with such venom in any other black village other than  Buxton and the resulting ‘programme’ against the vulnerable, isolated Indian population in Wismar/Mackenzie (May 26, 1964) immediately after the brutal murder (May 21) and burial (May 25) of the elderly Sealey farmers aback of Buxton. Surely, Mr. Kwayana knew about the pre-planned, revengeful, orchestrated holocaust against Indians in Wismar/Mackenzie the next day after the Sealeys funeral? Was he silent or did he acquiesce?

Mr. Kwayana has to be riding on two asses, which may I suggest, if not yoked properly, will see him ending up on his own. History can be a double-edged sword as we know. Surely when a man chooses the right to live in luxury even if it’s in California he should also examine his conscience over time.

(3) However an inquiry of Mr. Kwayana  “in favour of defenceless Guyanese” Mr. Forbes Burnham’s seizure of sugar estate lands in front of Elizabeth Hall adjoining Enterprise, ECD on which the PNC built Melanie Damishana transforming it into a 100% black military fortress settled exclusively by former GDF and GPF personnel is revealing.

Where was Mr. Kwayana’s righteous anger when this seizure occurred? “On this claim (substituting Mr. Kwayana) for Dr Persaud, he was” silent, whether in consent or in shame we do not know.”
Please reveal what makes that historic seizure and occupation of Melanie Damishana justified? Where were these nowadays ‘spring chicken’ Indian theoreticians when it mattered?

Mr. Kwayana’s words are still a haunting grim reminder of PNC wickedness that “if lands were available there, (i.e. Sparendaam, might as well be Elizabeth Hall), why was the fact not known publicly so that perhaps (substituting Enterprise/Elizabeth Hall) for Plaisance-Sparendaam people could have a chance of buying”. Same  story, different government, different time, same Kwayana. Same  wickedness?

(4) When Mr. Kwayana addresses why Guyanese post-emancipation lands are forever “yours” and those where Indian sugar workers reside are open for grabs for “national development” it will give us further insights.  Mayor Green (he was a PNC cabinet member then) can justify this seizure of Elizabeth Hall’s front lands knowing full well that this was a deliberate PNC military plan to intimidate and break the PPP Enterprise stronghold nearby. I wonder who headed the GDF during Melanie Damishana’s creation. Was it you-know-who? No answer. Dr Jagan’s PPP still gave the PNC critical support and proceeded to hold secret talks with that party in the mid 1980s to buttress the PNC government. It seems that the Guyanese communists would do anything to advance their ideology even if it means their annihilation. No wonder the PPP has failed to racially balance Guyana’s forces. How loudly they complain when out of power. Does anyone actually believe the PPP/C can stay in power forever?

(5) Contrast Mr. Kwayana’s public concern of the ownership of lands at Sparendaam and the same PNC government expropriation (with the PPP support) of the Indian Immigration Funds. The PNC justified the funds seizure as a national patrimony to be shared by all (one love) and built a single cultural centre in predominantly black Georgetown where it was neither national in location, funding or current usage as if cultural continuance was neither necessary nor important to the rest of Guyana. Mr. Kwayana must remind us of any sadness or rejoicing which swept over him when the PNC government committed that travesty.

(6) No one can disagree with Mr. Kwayana’s condemnation of the shooting of the criminal Blackie London who surrendered. Why the silence when Desmond Hoyte’s PNC outrageously draped the Guyana national flag over his coffin in symbolic solidarity.  When the escaped criminals of Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins gang headquartered in Buxton degutted children and massacred innocent Lusignan residents on August 28, 2008, the bloody carnage saw a brandished placard yearning: “We want Roger Khan”.  Indians have absolutely no ethnic heroes. See to whom they turn? Yet the evidence does not prove the wrath of Khan was ever directed in brutality against the innocent or children and motivated by race. Khan even helped the US embassy to recover its kidnapped diplomat held at Buxton.  Roger Khan with all his faults was nevertheless embraced as a new hero. Their Kwayana extremist? Indians saw Khan as their protector and champion rightly or wrongly in their moment of horror.

(7)  Mr. Kwayana’s commendable inquiry to Dr Randy Persaud that  “I  should like to be reminded of an issue or case in Guyana in which Dr Randy Persaud lifted his   influential voice against the authorities in favour of defenceless Guyanese” in relation to the landless is still ironic. May I remind Mr. Kwayana of his pointed, terse reminder to Mr. Ravi Dev “that if he was born earlier he could have saved Guyana”.
Mr. Kwayana might as well have injured himself with the same spear pointed at Dr Persaud. This ‘newcomer’ Dr Persaud is still to sow his oats in a field which Mr. Kwayana jealously guards from afar. Saving Guyana would always be an infinitesimal challenge which has no assignment or exclusive ownership even if Mr. Kwayana claims lifetime prophethood in a God given mission.  (He once said a prophet was not acceptable in his own country.) Can he honestly claim that he has left black people and Buxton better now than when his metamorphosis began?

Many decent and fair-minded Guyanese share an interest in ensuring justice on the right of ”ownership and right to live” on Guyanese lands. Sparendaam should not be an exception in light of the above.