Special Report on the Rodney Commission of Inquiry by Shaun Michael Samaroo

Labour Minister Dr. Nanda Kishore Gopaul outlines authoritarian tyranny, as…
PNC dictatorship repressed workers

ACHIEVING free and fair elections, democracy and an absolutely free Guyana on October 5, 1992, took a long and bitter struggle against the “dictatorship and oppressive rule” of the People’s National Congress (PNC) Government, Minister of Labour, Dr. Nanda Kishore Gopaul said yesterday.
Testifying at the Presidential Commission probing the tragic assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney, Dr. Gopaul detailed a prolonged, intense national struggle to free Guyana of the despotic, tyrannical, repressive, authoritarian rule of the PNC. The despotic rule saw the PNC State machinery erode workers’ rights, destroy the national economy, and deny freedom to Guyanese, he said.
In a damning witness statement to the Commission, Dr. Gopaul details his long struggle as a trade unionist in the bitter fight for democracy in Guyana. He served as leader in various capacities of the militant union, the National Association of Allied and Commercial Industrial Employees (NAACIE), and worked alongside Dr. Rodney, Dr. Clive Thomas, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, Ashton Chase, Charles Ramson and other leading Guyanese fighters for a democratic and free Guyana.
“I believe that with the continued involvement of NAACIE in the struggle for democracy and the close alliance forged with both the PPP (People’s Progressive Party) and WPA (Working People’s Alliance), the heightened militant positions by the WPA invoked the wrath of the PNC Government at that time. On three occasions I recall President Burnham publicly threatened to deal with those whom he perceived to be undermining his Government and Rodney was named and targeted”, Dr. Gopaul told the Commission.
“By 1979, all the basic rights of Guyanese had been denied, including:
• Freedom of expression
• Freedom to disseminate Information
• Freedom of the press
• Freedom of assembly
• Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining
• The right to travel
• The right to free and fair elections”
“We had thus become a full dictatorship by that time”, the Minister said, noting that “the events leading to the death of Dr. Walter Rodney and the public threats and actions of the ruling party at that time caused me to be of the firm opinion that top leadership of the PNC, including President Burnham and top officials of the security forces, were in collaboration in the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney. There can be no other conclusion that can be drawn based on my

recollection of events”.
The serving Minister of Labour in the current Government of President Donald Ramotar said that the PNC Government repressed and suppressed trade unions through intimidation, manipulation and political diktat, harming workers and denying Guyanese their basic rights.
“Nearly all of the estimated 4,000 employees (skilled and career public servants included) were offered cane cutting jobs in the sugar industry …. About 3,500 refused to take on this arduous task and found themselves added to the already vast unemployed list”, the Minister said.
He said after the national economy fell into severe disrepair and brokenness, NAACIE became militant in fighting for free and fair elections, joining with Dr. Rodney and the WPA, the PPP and several freedom fighters. “With the collaborative work and independent struggles with the other political parties and civic organisations, the country was able to force the dictatorship into free and fair elections under international observation led by former US President Jimmy Carter”, Dr. Gopaul said.
The historic Commission of Inquiry is holding hearings at the High court in Georgetown into the circumstances and conditions that led to the brutal bomb blast assassination of Dr. Rodney on the night of Friday, June 13, 1980.
Worldwide suspicion has fingered the repressive PNC dictatorship as the major suspect in the conspiracy to plot and execute the deadly plan to assassinate Dr. Rodney. The cold case languished for 34 years before President Ramotar convened the distinguished Commission, comprising top Caribbean legal luminaries in its Chairman, Sir Richard Cheltenham, SeenathJairam of Trinidad and Tobago, and Jacqueline Samuels-Brown of Jamaica.
Dr. Gopaul described Dr. Rodney as peaceful and non-violent. “Dr. Walter Rodney made his views known quite clearly that his mission was one to ensure change by public but peaceful confrontation of the dictatorship. In short, he was calling on the people to rise up and ensure that ‘King Kong’, as he often referred to the Executive President at that time, must not continue to have his way. He vowed to give the people a ‘Christmas present’ once they stood in unity. In other words, he was assuring people of change.
“The people were responding and by that time the people were turning out in large numbers at meetings. He did not mince words in directly calling for change, but at no time did I ever hear him speaking of violent confrontation.
“On the contrary, acts of violence started to be perpetuated against Guyanese by the State ( the PNC Government)…,” he said.
The Commission has documented a large body of witness testimonies stating that the PNC Government practised violence against people it perceived to be anti-PNC, and Dr. Gopaul said Police aligned with thugs to harass and intimidate people attending anti-PNC political meetings, with Police beating and tear gassing people at Bourda Mall.
The Minister described to the Commission how the PNC Government practised paramountcy of the PNC over the State, a fact that is emerging at the Commission as crucial evidence that the PNC took control of the economic, political and social institutions of Guyana, and destroyed people’s livelihood, including banning basic food and controlling food supply to the population through mysterious distribution centres known as Knowledge Sharing Institutes . The PNC’s party flag also flew with equal standing as the national flag, the Golden Arrowhead, at the Court of Appeal and Government buildings, Dr. Gopaul said, confirming testimonies to the Commission from earlier witnesses.
Dr. Gopaul resumes the witness stand this morning, where he will face cross examination from Counsels.