I completed reading Raphael Trotman’s, “From Destiny to Prosperity” and it has nothing of value to add to Guyana’s historiography. The book has 50 pages of Trotman’s own thoughts, 19 pages of photographs and 118 pages of reports. Trotman’s book then is really 50 pages of what he has to say. In those 50 pages, Trotman proved to be a poor intellectual.

When you are writing a book as a politician you have to remember the potent and revealing things you said and wrote over the years. Because of the sensitive nature of these emanations, they must be part of your book. Trotman’s 50 pages are a journey into alternative facts and forgetfulness. The rest of the review here are about these two dimensions.

1 –There is no account of him being part of a team with Debra Backer to oust Desmond Hoyte as leader of the PNC. The panegyrics of Hoyte in the book are crocodile tears.

2- There is no account of why he wanted to be the presidential candidate in the 2011 elections, when he told Khemraj Ramjattan that he would give way to him. In my last installment in my ongoing series on the Mulatto/Creole Class, I told readers why he had to contest the presidency in 2011, thereby creating a permanent chasm that will last forever between him and Ramjattan.
3- After a bruising leadership battle between him and Ramjattan for the leader role of the Alliance For Change at the 2016 congress of the AFC at Vreed-en-Hoop, Trotman held a press conference in February in his capacity as new leader at the AFC head office. He told the media that the AFC did not offer Cabinet positions to him, Dominic Gaskin and Noel Holder. He went on to reveal that it was President Granger who assigned the Natural Resources portfolio to him after relieving Rupert Roopnaraine of that role; Agriculture Ministry to Holder and Business Ministry to Gaskin. He has a section titled, “On Becoming a Minister,” but there is no mention of how he become one.

4- Trotman writes romantically of David Granger, but faulty memory or forgetfulness can cause people to ridicule you or see you as a nasty person who distorts history. In December 2021, Trotman published a letter in the Stabroek News in which he said that the ethnic divide is so great that when there was a PNC government from 1968 to 1992 and from 2015 to 2000, Indian people felt left out. And when there was a PPP government from 1957 to 1964 and 1993 to 2015, African people were not satisfied. At no point in those 50 pages, he told us why his and the presence of the AFC in government did not attempt a reaching out to the other side. In fact, this columnist is contending that President, Dr. Irfaan Ali is doing more to dilute racial awareness than Trotman and his APNU+AFC government ever did.

5- In high praise of Granger, he said Guyanese were not ready for Granger’s changes. This is what is called the methodology of alternative facts that the politics of Trumpism gave the world. Mr. Granger has been accused by his own political marriage partner, the AFC, of hogging power. So in 2017, the AFC held a special retreat at the Convention Centre with one item on the agenda – reduce the enormous portfolio of the Ministry of the Presidency. In that retreat, whatever happened, Nigel Hughes resigned as chairman the next day. Guyana still does not know what happened, but it would have been a valuable insertion into Guyana’s historiography if Trotman had explained why the retreat collapsed and what role he played.

6- In the acknowledgement page, Trotman names a personal friend. It was that lady that Trotman nominated to be Minister of the Environment when the AFC met at its head office to select its ministers. None of the second-tier leaders ever heard of the woman. All the second-tier leaders in that room rejected her name, nominating instead, Leonard Craig or Rajendra Bissesar. All the middle-class elites in the AFC leadership went for the woman. She cited poor ministerial pay for her refusal. It was that issue that caused the PNC and AFC the next week to raise ministerial salaries by over 50 per cent.

In conclusion, Trotman’s book is not about facts but evasions and alternative facts. I unapologetically say – do not buy it. Columnist’s note: My column in the printed paper did not appear yesterday. But it was carried in the online edition. I apologise to the readers of the print edition who looked for it. Please go online and read it.