THE lone volume of the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry report is all there is to be released, according to Cabinet Secretary Joseph Harmon.Harmon’s statement follows requests made by the political opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) to have the other volumes released by President David Granger, since the report currently in circulation states “Volume 1.”

At his post-Cabinet press conference yesterday, Harmon said government had sought clarification from the Chairman of the CoI Sir Richard Cheltenham on whether there were more volumes, but the Barbadian legal titan responded in the negative.

“There is no volume two or volume three,” Harmon said, reassuring that there is nothing more to be released by the government since the entire report was included in the document marked “Volume 1” that was handed to President David Granger February last.

That report was subsequently presented to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland, the opposition PPP and the family of the late Dr Rodney.

The previous Donald Ramotar administration in 2013 had established the inquiry into the death of Rodney, whose challenge to the Forbes Burnham administration in the 1970s had catapulted him to prominence as a political activist.
The Granger government, when it came to office in 2015, brought the commission to an end since it had dragged on for more than two years and exhausted tens of millions of dollars. The CoI was likened to a political witch-hunt against the People’s National Congress (PNC), the party which was in power when Rodney was killed on June 13, 1980.
President Granger is the current leader of the PNC, which is the major party of the coalition now in government.
Government’s presentation of the report to the House Speaker on May 11, 2016, came one day before a motion for the release of the report was tabled by the PPP.
An online petition is currently in circulation throughout the Caribbean demanding that the Guyana government release the Rodney report to the public.
Meanwhile, the PPP is still moving forward with its motion to have the report debated in the National Assembly.
Dr Barton Scotland, the speaker of the National Assembly, has accepted the party’s motion to have the debate on the contents of the report.
Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira confirmed this in an invited comment from this newspaper. Government is yet to announce the date for the next sitting of the National Assembly.
The PPP motion, introduced by Teixeira, called for the government to table the Rodney report in the National Assembly, which would open that report to debate.
Teixeira said she has heard through the grapevine that there could be a sitting on June 30, but up to the time of her comment, she had not been informed by government’s Chief Whip, Amna Ally.
The PPP’s motion may not come up at the next Sitting of the house, since that sitting will deal with government business. The PPP motion would have to await a sitting designated for Private Member’s business.
Teixeira expressed concern about the uncertainty of sittings of the National Assembly.