THE Walter Rodney Inquiry currently underway has brought back memories that some people would prefer to leave buried in the sands of time.For the vast majority of Guyanese, it brings back memories of a period in our history when fear and repression were institutionalised. It took men and women of courage and strength of character to stand up against the dictatorship obtaining at that time.

The spotlight of the Inquiry is on the late Walter Rodney, but it must not be forgotten that there were many others outside of the WPA who were also victims during that dreaded reign of terror that once pervaded the land.

There were, for example, the killings of the two ballot box martyrs in the Corentyne, and the imprisonment of Arnold Rampersaud, who spent years behind bars on trumped-up charges. It took the collective efforts and condemnation of a wide cross-section of the Guyanese people, which included bauxite and sugar workers and a battery of legal minds drawn from Guyana and the Caribbean, to eventually set him free.

And who could forget the knifing to death of Jesuit Priest Father Darke by members of the notorious House of Israel cult, yards away from the Brickdam Police Station?

That cult, at that time, enjoyed close contacts with the PNC regime. Interestingly, surviving members of that cult reportedly refused to appear before the Commission, presumably out of fear of saying the ‘wrong’ things.

I have vivid recollections of those days, when public meetings by the PPP and the WPA were broken up by PNC and House of Israel thugs in full view of members of the disciplined forces. Many were the times when public meetings had to end prematurely and speakers forced to flee out of fear for their safety against thug elements associated with the PNC.

The killing of Walter Rodney was, to a certain extent, a culmination of a series of atrocities committed against those who dared to speak out against dictatorial and authoritarian rule.

There are so many people from the opposition political parties who have their own stories to tell of harassment, intimidation, incarceration, and threats to their lives that those could make volumes of published writings if they were to be told.

Many will remain untold, and many others have literally gone to the grave; but, together, they constituted a narrative of pain and sufferings inflicted on men and women of honour and worth.

There are stories of persons who were demoted, lost jobs, were transferred to interior locations, and suffered summary dismissals all because they dared to stand up for their rights and for justice and human dignity. These are the unsung heroes and heroines who, by their courage and resolute stance, helped to bring an end to dictatorial rule, and to usher in a new political dispensation and culture.

President Donald Ramotar must be commended for the decision he took to set up the Commission, aimed at going after the truth surrounding the death of Dr. Rodney. It is important that the truth be told; for in the final analysis, it is the truth that shall set us free.

HYDAR ALLY