THE media release from Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Hon. Anil Nandlall, stating that “Government is flummoxed by an impetuous outburst from the Guyana Human Rights Association(GHRA) in relation to the Walter Rodney Inquiry” is surprising, since all signals emanating from the GHRA, coupled with the history of this entity, indicate that the GHRA would take the position of the Opposition collective on any issue. 

The GHRA’s contention that great doubt exists in the minds of a wide cross-section of the Guyanese society in respect of who now constitutes this organisation, what causes they prosecute, and upon whose behalf they act, is at best a misrepresentation of facts; but in reality an outright lie, because this inquiry has long been lobbied for by Guyanese across every divide, as well as by individuals and bodies all across the globe.

The GHRA’s contentions all constitute a smokescreen to hide its concern, because now that through the WPA they are all affiliated with the PNC, this commission of inquiry that has been composed to investigate the death of Walter Rodney is no longer welcome by the members of the WPA and their affiliates in the Red Thread, GHRA, et al for fear that the facts would be revealed to the world – that Rodney’s death was indeed an assassination committed by the agent of the PNC administration, GDF Sergeant Gregory Smith. This would underline the odious and filthy marriage of the WPA to the murderers of its former leader and national hero, Walter Rodney. It conjures up shades of Hamlet’s mother’s marriage to her husband’s murderer, and both are heinous actions of self-serving persons.

According to the AG, “The mysterious facts and circumstances surrounding the death of Dr. Walter Rodney have hovered over Guyana like a dark cloud since 13th June, 1980. Over the last 34 (thirty-four) years, calls have come from many parts of the world for a credible commission of inquiry to be conducted into the death of Dr. Walter Rodney.

“Attention needs to be drawn to the following: shortly after the incident in June, 1980, the PPP; the WPA; and indeed, the then newly formed vibrant and focused Guyana Human Rights Association, echoed similar requests. When the PPP assumed Government in 1992, those demands were renewed by many, including the immediate family of Dr. Rodney and the WPA.
However, those once before ‘friends’ of Walter Rodney’s are now collaborating with his murderers to destroy all that he lived and died for; all his goals and aspirations for a peaceful, progressive and prosperous Guyanese nation; and all their shameless pronouncements and prognostications are no more than attempts to camouflage their dark actions and intentions that have betrayed, as a continuum, the ideals and endeavours of Walter”.

But what of the many, many people straddling the globe who still love and revere Walter, including his relatives, who have lost a loving and beloved member of their family? It was a recent appeal to President Donald Ramotar by Walter’s widow, Dr. Patricia Rodney, and her daughter, Asha Rodney, to commission such an Inquiry “…so that this tragic chapter in the life of the family can enjoy some closure”.  But more than that, they specifically indicated that, should the Government accede to their request, they would like to participate in setting the terms of reference of any such inquiry; and they requested that these terms of reference and the composition of the inquiry must not be made the subject of a political process.

President Ramotar has honoured the wishes of the Rodney family and acceded to the request. Thus the composition of the terms of reference and the CoI should not be made into a political football by those who are now conspiring with his murderers to destroy the country and people that he loved and for whom he was martyred.

The GHRA’s ridiculous and irrational excuse for objecting to the Rodney CoI, that it has “…rich potential for stirring up Indo-Guyanese resentment against the PNC”, is a mere smokescreen for their notorious affiliation to, and support of, the known murderers/assassins of one of Guyana’s heroes and martyrs; because, as a former WPA member wrote in the Chronicle’s letters column, “Why would Indo-Guyanese be stirred up by an inquiry into the death of Walter Rodney, even if it is proved that Gregory Smith assassinated him on the orders of former President Burnham? After all, Walter Rodney, Gregory Smith and Forbes Burnham were all Black men.
All right-thinking persons should unreservedly welcome this CoI.
Indeed! But the operative phraseology here is “right-thinking persons”. And which right-thinking person would believe that Dr Walter Rodney would have wanted the affiliation of the vehicle of his freedom fight – the WPA – aligned to the people and the party he detested so much that he was willing to sacrifice his life (because he was warned of the dangers by Dr. Cheddi Jagan) for his cause and his belief that the PNC was disastrous for Guyana and the Guyanese people?

So any position which speaks against the Rodney CoI that is taken by the PNC, WPA, GHRA and all those cosily wrapped together under one blanket of destructive policies against Guyana and the nation at large, should be completely ignored for what it is: the red herring meant to hide their shameless partnership with, and support for, the very people and party that allegedly killed the great Guyanese martyr and hero.

It is time the people who really love Walter get some justice, if not through prosecution of these murderers, at least through some closure of a tragic episode that left unhealed wounds in their collective souls. It is time the tears stop flowing for Walter, and his soul find everlasting peace.