IN the days leading up to the commencement of the hearings of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the death of Dr. Walter Rodney, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) had made it clear that it will not be a participant in the hearings.The PNCR, in a statement two weeks before the start of the hearings, made it clear that it will stand by its decision not to participate in the COI. According to the party, the decision was reached after a meeting of its Central Executive Committee.
However, Joseph Harmon, a member of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), a coalition with a largely PNC representation, told the Guyana Chronicle that he and a team will be present for the duration of the hearings, which opened yesterday.
Harmon said, “We have come here to represent the interest of the PNCR and we are going to do that during the proceedings. Myself, Mr. Williams (Basil Williams) and Mr. Bond (James Bond) are the attorneys appointed, but beyond that we have a wider group of attorneys in the background who will be advising us as the proceedings continue.”
The PNCR’s earlier position was widely considered a sticky one, given the allegations that the then PNC Government engineered Dr. Rodney’s assassination.
UNCLEAR ROLE
Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, in an invited comment, said, “I am unclear what role Mr. Williams and Mr. Harmon are playing in the Commission of Inquiry, if one is to be guided by what the APNU’s public position is…that they are boycotting the Commission.”

“I am a little confused by their position – on the one hand they are boycotting and on the other hand they are participating through counsel,” Nandlall commented.
The Attorney General said he is unsure of how this “approbation and reprobation” will be viewed by the Commissioners.
Nandlall said, “I indicated very early that the decision of the PNCR to boycott the Commission is unfortunate because history has pointed, and the evidence which is likely to unfold before the Commission will continue to point an accusatory and implicating finger at the PNCR. Therefore, their longstanding denial of involvement in Rodney’s death will become the focus of attention.”
“Were they as innocent as they claim they are, one would have expected that they would have capitalised on this momentous opportunity to exonerate themselves from culpability and any involvement,” Nandlall asserted.
Rodney was killed when a bomb exploded in the car in which he was sitting. He was 38 years old at the time. Nine years ago, Parliament unanimously approved a motion to establish a commission to enquire into the circumstances surrounding his death.
President Donald Ramotar had agreed, in June 2013, to establish the COI following a request from the Rodney family, after a previous inquiry ordered by former President Desmond Hoyte in 1988 found that the historian/politician’s demise was caused by an ‘accident or misadventure’, and that was met with grave disbelief.
Additionally, the establishment of a COI was supported by a Parliamentary Motion that spawned the decision to establish the Commission of Inquiry: “On the 13th June, 1980, Dr. Walter Rodney, a distinguished Guyanese scholar, was assassinated by an explosion which occurred in his car at John and Hadfield Streets, Georgetown. Dr. Rodney was, at the time of his death, an eminent political leader engaged in democracy and social justice in a struggle against authoritarian rule. There have been calls for a full investigation into the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney, which have received broad support.
The National Assembly, in paying tribute to the memory of this illustrious son of Guyana, and on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his untimely and tragic death, supports an enquiry being conducted into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr. Rodney.”
On April 15, Members of Parliament (MPs) were unanimous in their approval of $112M to fund the work of the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry, an allocation that was listed under the Office of the President’s $2.2B current expenditure estimates in the 2014 Budget.
After his assassination, Rodney received several honours posthumously, among them, in 1993 the Government of Dr. Cheddi Jagan conferred on him the country’s highest National Award, the Order of Excellence (OE) and the Walter Rodney Chair in History was created at the University of Guyana. (Vanessa Narine)