IN the pantheon of Marxist/socialist intellectuals in contemporary world history who espoused revolution and working-class liberation, then became right-wing ideologues and transformed their complete political persona into horrible, espousal of reactionary causes, only two figures can be compared to the Guyanese school of Rupert Roopnaraine, Clive Thomas, Eusi Kwayana and Moses Bhagwan.

The two global figures are Eldridge Cleaver, violent revolutionary of the Black Panther Party in the US in the late 1960s. He violently attacked the American establishment then sought asylum in anti-colonial Algeria, where he was eulogised as an American revolutionary hero. Cleaver’s politics degenerated into a vast cesspool of right-wing conservatism and right-wing Christian evangelicalism.

Across the Atlantic in France, there was Regis Debray, a philosophy student who was fascinated with revolution and joined Che Guevara to make the socialist revolution in Latin America. He was captured fighting alongside Guevara in Bolivia. Guevara became and still is one of history’s fascinating, admirable human of Don Quixote character. Debray after release from prison, went back to France and became a spokesperson for French nationalism and French imperialism.
At home in Guyana, four persons come close to Cleaver and Debray. I have listed them above. Of the four, Kwayana and Thomas come very close to approximating the racially driven mentality of David Hinds.

Kwayana is a serial offender whose racial outpouring is so relentless that you have to save young minds from him. His latest miasma is in the Stabroek News last Saturday. Wild horses cannot hold me back from replying to that cancerous offering.
Now here is what Thomas said recently at a WPA executive meeting. I am quoting from Tacuma Ogunseye so it is not Frederick Kissoon that accused Thomas of racially driven ignorant politics. Here is what Ogunseye wrote yesterday (Tuesday) in the letter pages of Stabroek News: “Professor Clive Thomas

reminded us at the last WPA Executive meeting, that once the youth of a people buy into selling/trading their votes for political, economic and social favours, people are lost. The meaning and value of the vote are gone forever – and impossible to retrieve.”

This is unprecedented political ignorance from Clive Thomas who should, like Kwayana, show some respect for his age. Let’s breakdown the statement and analyse each piece. Thomas is referring to African people because he comes within the identical racial gospels of David Hinds.
He is referring to African people because of the context. The context is selling your votes for economic rewards. You have to be stupid not to think he is referring to African Guyanese who endorse the PPP. This is the typical David Hinds songbook.

But wait a minute! Thomas offered that viewpoint at a WPA executive meeting of which Hinds was present (through zoom) a week before Hinds vilified Leonard Craig and James Bond for endorsing President Ali. Is it possible that the WPA executive meeting discussed Craig and Bond, and Thomas shaped his comment to capture how he felt about Craig and Bond, and Hinds parroted what he thought was in Thomas’ mind?

I think this society should seriously reflect if Hinds’ ethnic bigotry was not motivated by what he heard from Thomas at that fateful WPA meeting. But let’s analyse another part of Thomas’s incitement. It is pathetic ignorance to claim that an African village’s warm words to President Ali who visited them and promised delivery of what was requested is an indication of selling their votes.

What is the relevance of votes when a nation’s president who is Indian visits an African village and delivered resources to them that they are entitled to as citizens? Important to note is the fact that you are insulting those villages by accusation of trading their votes. Then there is the fact that no one knows how people vote.

When I was a teenager growing up in Wortmanville in South Georgetown, Africans and Indians in Wortmanville flocked to Banks DIH to take goodies from business tycoon, Peter D’Aguiar to vote for his party, the United Force. They came back laughing, saying openly that they are going for Burnham and Jagan. I know both Indians and Africans who said that in Wortmanville.

In my column yesterday (Tuesday), I warned my readers about persons in Guyana whose politics is as bizarre as David Hinds.’ I think Clive Thomas is one of them. I saw at UG how Thomas was transformed from a socialist, multi-racial thinker into an ethnic preacher. For Thomas’s degeneration see page

222 of Dr. Maurice Odle’s autobiography. Odle was friends with Thomas for over 60 years. Read what he said about Thomas. Next – more degenerate stuff from Kwayana.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.