AS IF committed to sustaining old political hostilities and fuel the racial divide that makes national unity in Guyana such a mountainous challenge, the 68-year-old leader of APNU, David Granger, has expediently opted to overlook a most outrageous dimension of this nation’s painful fratricidal warfare during the 1960s.

It is all the more troubling, if not shocking, that ex-GDF Brigadier Ganger should have so arrogantly chosen to ignore referencing the single most despicable ethnic-cleansing political development of Guyana’s 1964 race-driven conflicts when addressing a memorial event marking the 49th anniversary of the horrendous bombing  tragedy of the transport vessel, ”Son Chapman” on July 6, 1964.
Speaking at a memorial service last weekend at “Burnham Drive” (named after the late President Forbes Burnham), and against the backdrop of an imposing monument  bearing the names of the 43 victims who perished on board the privately-owned “Son Chapman” in the Demerara River, APNU’s Granger claimed:
“…The communities of Mackenzie (renamed Linden, after the PNC’s leader), Wismar, and Christianburg had been targeted for terrorism by the masterminds of terrorism…They succeeded…”
Over 176 persons were killed “during that dark period, and thousands of buildings were burnt…” he added.
As Chief Reporter of the then British-owned “Guiana Graphic” newspaper, I  was among media colleagues, providing first-hand accounts of tragedies like that of the “Son Chapman”, as well what directly followed, but, astonishingly, APNU’s Granger conveniently failed to mention that it was the  infamous political reprisal that was to ferociously dislocate once harmonious multi-racial communities in the Upper Demerara River region.

Ethnic cleansing
It came to be more popularly described as “the Mackenzie/Wismar riots” when hundreds of Guyanese of Indian descent were specifically targeted as victims for “ethnic cleansing” and forced to flee.
The crimes of murder, rape, arson, robbery and other degrading acts of reprisal that had swiftly erupted in that politically-inspired “ethnic cleansing” process in the wake of the “Son Chapman” tragedy  are chronicled in the official report from an independent Commission of Inquiry.
Those now piously  talking — like APNU’s Granger — about a “dark  period” of Guyana’s pre-independence history, and glibly refer to “the masterminds of terrorism”, should also acquaint  themselves with relevant available documents, such as the infamous “X-13 plan” uncovered by the police at the headquarters of the People’s National Congress (now absorbed by the Granger-led APNU).
It may be fun politics for some to fake amnesia of convenience when talking about the “masterminds of terrorism” while being aware of the dread involvement by both PPP and PNC in the internecine warfare of the 1960s.
Then American and British intelligence were deeply involved in funding as well as providing other resources to destabilise and eventually remove the PPP-led government headed by Dr Cheddi Jagan.

Linking two tragedies
It is perhaps commendable that there is now a monument located at ‘Burnham Drive’ to remind all and sundry of the 43 innocent victims who perished in the ‘Son Chapman disaster’.
Nevertheless, from my own perspective, justice and sheer human decency should have made it compelling to consider broadening the “memorial” gesture, however appropriately determined, to also recognise the directly related ‘ethnic cleansing’ Wismar/Mackenize/Christianburg tragedy that APNU’s Granger, for all his “knowledge”, has failed  to mention.
The harsh reality, never mind the APNU leader’s  sophistry  about letting “the pain of the past be used to propel us to peace and prosperity”,  is that the shocking  “Son Chapman” disaster is integrally linked to the unprecedented ethnic-cleansing tragedy that followed.
If, as the political reasoning goes, the PPP strategists were involved in the “Son Chapman” disaster as an extension of widening opposition to the government it led in Georgetown, then it would be simply puerile to disassociate PNC’s involvement in the execution of what some prefer to reference as the “Wismar/Mackenzie massacre”.
As a journalist in Guyana, covering  a multiplicity of human tragedies, many related to political conflict between the PNC and PPP, I can now recall an article that bears relevance to creation of the monument dedicated to those who perished  in the “Son Chapman” disaster.
I had written then that rather than just having annual “memorial day” ceremonies for World War victims, there ought to be the creation also of an appropriate memorial in honour of the 176-odd Guyanese killed during our dreadful political/racial conflicts.
Such a memorial, I reasoned, could serve as a very visible influential reminder why Guyanese, of all races, should strive, against the odds, to avoid the path of destruction, and to dwell in peace and harmony. This would be consistent with our national motto of “One People, One Nation, One Destiny”.
Of course, I guess if you are a politician anxious to exploit any strategy, embrace any opportunity that could facilitate party leadership, or, more importantly, securing the reins of State power, then the political choreography could be designed to cater for the particular occasion, or audience.