Dear Editor,

TODAY, June 13, we mark another anniversary of the assassination of Walter Rodney, Guyanese patriot and world-renowned scholar-activist. On this 36th anniversary of Walter Rodney’s assassination, I call on the Government to fulfil its promise to have the Walter Rodney CoI report properly laid before Parliament and be debated. I hope that such a debate avoids the political finger-pointing and instead focuses on the big lessons, in particular the banishment of the use of the state and para-state institutions as tools of violence against political opponents and the citizenry in general.On this Rodney anniversary, I call upon the President to expand his promise to inquire into the death of former PPP Minister Satyadeow Sawh and his family to include all politically-motivated killings over the last four decades.

I especially call for inquiries into the deaths of Ronald Waddell and Courtney Crum-Ewing; the families of these brothers and all of Guyana need to know the circumstances surrounding their deaths.

I also urge the Government to honour Walter Rodney in the most non-partisan manner by renaming the University of Guyana the Walter Rodney University of Guyana. All Guyanese, regardless of political affiliation, agree that Rodney was one of our most brilliant scholars. It would be a fitting symbol of the efforts to regenerate the university, and a living monument to Rodney and the centrality of education to Guyana’s national development.

I also call on the Ministry of Education to introduce Rodney’s two children’s books —- ‘Kofi Badu out of Africa’ and ‘Lakshmi out of India’ — into the school curriculum. Such a move would contribute immensely to national cohesion, particularly among the youth. Rodney’s insights into our ethnic dynamics are invaluable, and should not be wasted.

Finally, on this anniversary, I call for a national stand against attacks on the independent media. This is an area of our politics that Rodney was most concerned about. He saw the assassination of the journalist Father Bernard Darke in 1979 as a descent into barbarism. The recent grenade attack on the Kaieteur News is a stark reminder that there is still fear of the “Open Word.”
Yours sincerely,
DAVID HINDS