HERE are the words of one of Guyana’s enduring ideologues of the Mulatto/Creole class, Alissa Trotz, who has been living in Canada the past 40 years.  The words are reproduced in an atrocious book (Oil and Climate Change in Guyana’s Wet Neighbourhood) written earlier this year by former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Ivelaw Griffith. In days to come, I will review this pernicious piece of anti-government propaganda.

Here is what Trotz wrote about the PPP government when her Mulatto/Creole friends lost the 2020 elections: “…there have been widespread purges…of officials associated with former (APNU+AFC) administration.” Ms Trotz was silent when her APNU+AFC government of which one of her soul mates, Rupert Roopnaraine was a senior minister, committed widespread purges (I’m using her words) of officials of the previous PPP government.

One of the victims of these witch-hunts of the APNU+AFC regime was Michael Khan, Guyana’s most experienced hospital administrator. The APNU+AFC administration requested Christopher Ram to do an audit of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation that ‘Mike’ was in charge of for a very long time. The audit found no fraud, no financial irregularities, yet he was removed and his place taken by a former UG student of mine, a retired army captain that served under Granger in the GDF.

Ivelaw Griffith and Trotz did not write about unfair and rampant dismissals of a government which included the famous colleagues of Walter Rodney – Rupert Roopnaraine, Clive Thomas, Maurice Odle, Tacuma Ogunseye, David Hinds and Joycelyn Dow among others. In my heart, I do not wish ill-will on anyone, but when their time comes, and I am still doing columns, I will have a mouthful to say about fraudulent revolutionaries that I once shared a political camaraderie with.

Michael Khan was a buddy friend. In my human rights activism, Mike’ and I saved the lives of many persons. I would go to ‘Mike’ about people with terrible sufferings whose only hope was the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. ‘Mike’ was always there for me. Mike never postponed acting on the persons I asked him to assist.

I will name two of them. One is dead so I can identify him. Mobutu, a stalwart of the WPA in the long struggle against the Burnham dictatorship, showed up at my home in excruciating pain. Mobutu told me his intestines were protruding onto the areas of other internal organs and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation said they were fully booked, and he had to wait three months.

I went to Micheal Khan’s office. Mobutu got the surgery the next day. It saved his life. The other person is (she is alive) the daughter of a then AFC executive in 2014. She was in a terrible state when her father called me. She had not been  treated for hours and was lying in pain at the hospital’s A&E unit. What I did was what I had done for years with ‘Mike’ as my friend. This young lady’s life was saved by his intervention.

‘Mike’ Khan never recovered psychologically from his job loss at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. It took a toll on his health. I honestly believe that the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation was in his blood and he went to pieces when he was removed. It is a story that is as old as the seas. A person’s life is taken over by their career and when that career is over, then the mind and body collapses.

In the case of ‘Mike,’ the psychic damage was too extensive. He didn’t retire. He did not reach the stage of physical incapacity. ‘Mike’ was removed by a government that did not offer him any explanation. The PNC and AFC leaders were too stupid to understand politics in general. ‘Mike’ Khan loved what he was doing at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. He had no time for partisan politics.

‘Mike’ never uttered a public political statement. He was simply into his work. Whether it was the PPP government or the AFC government or the PNC in office, Mike’ had no time for politics. I was his friend for a long time, and I can say without hesitation that ‘Mike’ never had any yearnings for any political party or any political personality.

We spent time together during his long years of mental discomfort, but I simply could not get through to him about moving on. He was incapable of moving on. I thought the best thing for him was to remain in Guyana because the life and culture of the U.S. were completely different to Guyana’s. His mental stability was best assured by living in Guyana. He accepted that advice and stayed in Guyana where we would talk frequently and have lunches at Oasis Café. He left Guyana without telling me, then, I heard the news that he collapsed and died in the U.S.

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.