WHAT goes on in political space in this country is a continuing assault on Guyana’s historiography.
All of the major political parties over the past 80 years up to the present time have a tenacious habit of refusing to allow for the recording of Guyana’s history. It is left up to the historian and other professionals to save Guyana’s historiography.
Anyone interested in politics should know that these parties do not want to level with the Guyanese people. There is an almost insane refusal to show obligation to the Guyanese people. The result is a distortion of the country’s history. I plan shortly to do an enumeration of very important occurrences in the current history of some political parties that up to this day, there has been no explanation and none will be forthcoming.
For now, I confront the deception of former WPA big-wig, Wasir Mohamed who has responded to my series of columns on Rupert Roopnaraine in the Guyana Chronicle. Here is what Mohamed wrote: “Mr. Kissoon claims to possess information that the WPA rejected an offer from the PPP to form a joint government following the 1992 elections. It was not the WPA that withdrew from the arrangement. The offer was withdrawn by Dr. Cheddi Jagan and the PPP.”
I have never written before and even in the present time about joint government between the WPA and PPP after the PPP won the 1992 election. What I wrote last week is that President Jagan offered Clive Thomas the post of Economic Affairs Minister. The WPA met in emergency meeting and refused the offer on the ground that it was not for Dr. Jagan to select which WPA member will join his Cabinet.
That decision is public knowledge and can be researched through the WPA’s publications in 1992 and onwards. Mohamed’s declaration makes President Jagan look foolish in the eyes of people. The president offers Dr. Thomas a ministry then withdraws it. Surely, something had to happen. But let’s quote Mohamed again to prove that he is a politically dishonest man.
Here is what Mohamed wrote in response to the WPA’s rejection of the PPP’s offer: “As Chairperson of the WPA Committee of Conference in 1992, the party’s highest decision-making body at the time—I state clearly and unequivocally that the Committee, over which I presided, voted by majority to accept the offer to participate in government. Furthermore, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine argued strongly and consistently in favour of the WPA accepting that offer.”
But look now who is contradicting Mohamed – none other than David Hinds. I now quote Hinds: “The WPA itself was split over participating in a PPP-dominated government. No doubt the risk of being perceived as siding with one ethnic group and being seen as an appendage of the PPP may have been uppermost in their minds. Another stumbling block was the PPP’s insistence on having the WPA’s co-leader, Clive Thomas in the government in an individual capacity rather than as a WPA member.”
So, is Mohamed suffering from Alzheimer’s or did he set about to deceive? Even a genius in grammar and semantics cannot reconcile what Mohamed and Hinds are asserting. Mohamed acknowledges acceptance.
Hinds is saying there was division. I know about the division and without hesitation, state with pellucid forcefulness, that at the meeting, Roopnaraine led the charge for rejection of the PPP offer. His contribution at the meeting was insulting to President Jagan. It appeared that Roopnaraine simply had a Freudian dislike for the great man.
How absorbing is the distortion by Mohamed at a time when I wrote as recent as yesterday (Tuesday) that we cannot allow caricatures of Guyana’s history to go unanswered. We have exposed the deception of Wasir Mohamed serendipitously due to David Hinds.
Here is what is going to happen after the publication of this column. Guyana is never going to hear from Wasir Mohamed again. He will disappear. There will be no obligation to offer clarification to the Guyanese people.
We will never hear from the mouth of Mohamed or his pen why President Jagan withdrew the offer to Clive Thomas. Mohamed will never write about that and will become invisible to Guyanese for one reason only. He is afraid that he will face a second round of embarrassment as he faces with this article here.
Dr Jagan did not withdraw the offer. The WPA’s demands made a working relationship between the PPP government and the WPA impossible. What were these demands? Roopnaraine composed them. When a certain PPP leader (you must know who he is- he is African and it wasn’t Roger Luncheon) saw Roopnaraine’s demands, he said: “deh ain know deh lost de election.”

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.