OLD age can affect one’s memory and Mr. Eusi Kwayana can be forgiven. But he usually vets his letters by an inner circle before publication. Is it possible Mr. Kwayana’s touted WPA, now entombed within PNC/APNU, unlike their unrealistic pre-1992 election negotiations with the PPP for equality, is seeking another emancipation? Even more stunning could be the possibility that the WPA’s romance with the PNC for ‘race equality’ may find Dr Rupert Roopnaraine becoming APNU’s consensus presidential candidate. Could publicly pouting that they did not get a free ride with President Donald Ramotar to Madiba’s funeral, motivate any emulation of the South African leader by brinkmanship? PNC political repentance for its original sin is long overdue.  Efforts to contest the 1992 elections as a Patriotic Coalition for Democracy (PCD) was torpedoed by the WPA’s inflexible demand, which rejected Dr Cheddi Jagan as the presidential candidate. Dr Jagan’s proposal for Dr Roger Luncheon as the compromise candidate was also rejected as him being both “black and red.” What PPP/C post-1992 approach was realistically possible with the WPA considering their uncompromising demands for half the cabinet ministries as well? Mr. Eusi Kwayana’s own Afro-centricity has always blinded him to his own failings as evident in his letter in SN of December 14, 2013 titled: “There was never any approach from the PPP to the WPA for a discussion on the post-election situation” after the 1992 polls.
Any amicable agreement by the WPA and Mr David Granger’s PNC to have conceded half of the cabinet ministries within any APNU government for “race equality” can only be commendable.  Such demands to the class touting PPP had been contentious. With Dr Rupert Roopnarine’s selection as both APNU and the WPA’s representative Indian prime ministerial candidate, it was officially sealed that Dr Walter Rodney’s class advocacy was flushed conclusively.  Why else would the WPA become merged into APNU except to ensure race was prioritized, reversing Dr Rodney’s subsuming of race to class?

However, no Guyanese, unless living in a fantasy world, is likely to believe that half of APNU’s cabinet will actually be reflected in Indians’ ministerial appointments for “race equality” with a Dr Roopnaraine prevailing. Absolutely without any matching Indian consciousness Dr Roopnarine and others like him, unlike Dr Rodney’s proud identification with Pan Africanism and Africa, are yet to prevail internally, within themselves. Mr Kwayana and his WPA coterie of black consciousness advocates still dominate that group, including ACDA.
Recovery from political ignominy after the WPA’s intransigence torpedoed the PCD, forcing all parties to independently contest  the 1992 elections may be ongoing again. PPP concession to rigid WPA demands based on race entitlements meant election results were predetermined. If so, why was there any need for democratic elections in Guyana anymore? Such WPA demands automatically denied the other smaller parties e.g. DLM and PDM any “equality”. Federalism has to now be the best compromise solution obviously.  Mr. Kwayana’s race entitlement demands were only verifiable by democratic elections anyway. Mistaking black ethnic sympathy for factual support, they were proven wrong in a rude awakening. Despite the PNC-imposed misery which all Guyanese suffered, their hard-core black base remained overwhelmingly loyal in 1992. The WPA’s expectations were shattered for any post-1992 leveraged compromise since their meagre election results substantially undermined  their  bargaining position. Ironically, their demands and expectations only stridently increased.
For Mr. Kwayana to now reveal another informal PPP/C offer was made to the WPA to head another ministry (Economic Development and Planning?) does him no favour.  Neither can his candid, commendable admission that his objections triumphed in the WPA’s rejection be anything new. He writes: “I took the risk of arguing that such a ministry was meaningless and was created for public consumption. As a matter of interest, the PPP never created such a ministry in 1992 or since.”  For Mr. Kwayana to castigate both Dr Jagan and the PPP for not creating any such ministry since its original offer to the WPA is understandable and fair. Still in yearning for current PPP/C delivery of what the PPP offered to them in 1992 can still be tenable since it was not acceptable?  Isn’t it symptomatic of being out of touch and outdated in the 21st century?
Mr. Kwayana’s probe to Mr. Ralph Ramkarran can however be politically pregnant, or it’s just an old timer reminiscing. “He is writing in the context of the venerable Madiba Mandela’s going home, and is making associations between the situation in South Africa and that in Guyana at the passing of the previous regimes.” Can Madiba be emulated by Mr. Kwayana?  Madiba previously resorted to personal violence to assert beliefs of exclusive racial entitlement. But he had changed, according to long-time cell mate, Mr. Ahmed Mohammed Kathrada.

A sincere change from the stormy petrel beliefs by substantial epoch- making deeds, not words alone, would be entitlement to the WPA and Mr. Kwayana’s own, and many others, genuine reverence.  The ball has always been in their court. History records Dr Jagan’s PPP noble secret negotiations when the PNC reached out in desperate need in the 1980s. During Madiba’s final burial rites, the long-time fellow prisoner Mr. Kathrada ‘spoke for a nation when – his voice cracking with emotion – he finished a very powerful eulogy about a 67-year-old friendship with the words: “Farewell my brother, my mentor, my leader…. When Walter [Sisulu] died, I lost a father and now I have lost a brother. My life is in a void and I don’t know who to turn to.”
Mr. Kwayana is no comparable loyalist to any leader ( Dr Jagan, Mr. Burnham or Dr Rodney under whom he served) by far, like Mr. Kathrada.  What can influence changes begins only within our Kwayanas emulating Madiba. Time is not their ally.

SULTAN MOHAMED