WHEN THE CLOCK TICKS

ALL art and liberating ideas that propel peoples and nations forward are challenged by the politics of the day, which, with the force of ideas, must be triumphed over against the cold urges of power for power’s sake. 

Perhaps, in every era or micro turn of events, the political tides of the day, cultic and unenlightened, throw a gauntlet that jeers at the principles of loyalty and courage; and it’s whether you kneel or rise in defiance that will determine whether the assailed group fades away, or survives with dignity.
Though many of us like to think of ourselves as being apolitical, the aggression of politics will intrude upon our illusive comfort spaces with its gauntlet to kneel, bow or rage in defiance. Extra-judicial killings were not new to Guyana in 1996, but it had escalated beyond all excuses and ridiculous logic.
Two men I call brothers passed away this year: Cyrus Boyce, alias ‘Shortman’, and Kenneth Chance, alias ‘Six Head’. The latter was on hand in defiance when young Jermaine Wilkinson was murdered by a purportedly ‘high’ Corporal Beresford in La Penitence Street, Albouystown on May 22, 1996, a killing that pierced the womb of a community.
What was different about Wilkinson’s murder was that this youth was known to everyone in his neighbourhood; and the usual criminal-attacks-police allegation, frequently used at the time, could not be pinned on him.
In a small country like ours, there were 12 extra-judicial murders in 1995; in 1996, Jermaine Wilkinson’s was the fourth for the month of February alone.

INDIFFERENCE
The Guyanese society, including the PPP government, was indifferent, as 99% of those being killed at the time were Afro-Guyanese from underprivileged areas.
The Albouystown community, and other south Georgetown residents, including myself, gathered, and we decided on an all-the-way protest for this murder. ‘Six Head’ Chance pulled me aside and said, “Barry, yuh know that we can’t back off here.” We were clear about the way forward.
President Jagan was visiting Charlestown School for some reason, so with our placards at the ready, and led by Jermaine’s aunts and mother, we proceeded to the Charlestown venue. But instead of engaging us, President Jagan went to his car and his bodyguards drew their weapons, pointing them at us.
I suggested that we reach out to the then Leader of the Opposition, Desmond Hoyte; that was my call, as I had met Mr Hoyte while he was President. I had designed his Presidential Standard, and had later visited his office over the execution and robbery of ‘Porridge Man’ in Rasville by Leon Fraser and his cohorts.
I rode to Congress Place to meet former President Hoyte. I met him in his office in the presence of some senior party members; I laid out our situation. To my surprise, Mr Parris and Mr Barrow insisted that Albouystown was Mayor Hamilton Green’s area, and that Mr Hoyte shouldn’t go there. This was ridiculous and idiotic! The fact was that up to that point, Mayor Green had not visited the Hunter Street residence where the protest headquarters was located.
Mr Hoyte listened to his advisors of the moment, then turned to Ronald Austin, whom I knew well and who had said nothing so far, and asked him, “What do you think, Ronald? And Ronald replied, “I think you should go with Barry.” Mr. Hoyte got up and said to me, “You lead the way, young man.”

HOYTE INTERVENES
And so, in 1996, Mr Hoyte and the PNC came into Albouystown to meet their protesting constituents and ACDA, who were already there.
I did enjoy the ‘wake’ discussions between Mr. Hoyte and ‘Buckelo’, ‘Banfa’, ‘Six Head’ and others on the subject of mandatory jail for marijuana, extra-judicial killings and the PPP.
From the over 14 days of protest [the figure may be a few days off] the ‘Justice for Jermaine’ organisation, with protestor ‘Bostwick’ as Chairman, was born.
My brother, ‘Boy Blue’, led the protest, and we were aware that we had attracted strong hatred from certain sections of the society. While riding his motorcycle one day, a black-tinted 4×4 vehicle side-swiped ‘Boy Blue’. Protestors took him to the Georgetown Hospital, where friendly hands attended to him before advising that he be taken home.
He would later regain consciousness, all in Plaster of Paris, but alive and at home.
When we protested outside the Attorney General’s office, Bernard De Santos came out and spoke with us; when we protested outside the PPP’s Robb Street headquarters, Freedom House, they jeered at us from their windows. Only the former PNC-turned PPP member, Henry Jeffrey, showed any humanity.
NO JUSTICE
Corporal Beresford was subsequently charged. We trailed his family to Freedom House, and from their body language, some of us immediately knew that he was not going to pay for his crime. We had entered an era of protest with an insensitive and double-standard administration.
‘Six Head’ would practically stare death in the face when a known ‘Death Squad’ policeman named ‘Big Batty’ went into his yard with a certain intent. Only the agitation of residents and friends saved his life. But things were fated to get worse.
After Waddell’s assassination, the ‘Waddell Forum For Political & Social Justice’ was born. ‘Six Head’, Bostwick, Archie Poole, Cyrus Boyce, Yvette, myself and others were behind its genesis.
I can remember Boyce’s daughter taking us one Christmas with our goodies to the Waddell Forum’s Christmas party; we were carrying toys etc. up the East Coast to Buxton, when Junior Wharton called me for the umpteenth time, asking me to come up to Soesdyke to meet a certain former GDF lieutenant who had just acquired a social conscience. I had no views on that person, as I was otherwise engaged, and saved myself prison time at the hands of a political conspiracy.
As it turned out, Major Munro, his wife, and Junior Wharton were entrapped on false charges of treason by this same GDF lieutenant whom they knew and had helped out. The proverb, ‘sorry fuh magga daag, magga daag tu’n round an bite yuh’ had fulfilled its tragic meaning; but this was only the first stage of a sinister plot to undo a legitimate economic pact by destroying the lives of people, and defaming a foreign ally of Guyana.
The major cog in the wheel of the schemers was the former commissioner of police, the late Henry Green, but the full sequence of that event will be written one day, when permission is given.
We have lived through a vicious period. Some choose the higher ground of principles at a vital cost; the many shape-shifters of the selfish gene, choose themselves. But according to the books of enlightenment, when all is done, the balance of immortality rests with the good works that outbalance the frailties of our humanity.
And we have witnessed courage from ordinary men like Kenneth Chance, Cyrus Boyce and many others; and humane concerns and commitment from others who had everything to gain by looking the other way, and did not. Farewell, fallen brothers. A luta continua.

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