AT least Moses Bhagwan showed more courage than his political acolytes in that he replied to me, giving me a chance to express myself on a certain period in contemporary Guyanese history so that I could contribute to the writing of the history of this country.
I hope to hear Bhagwan’s thoughts on the contents of this column so that the recording of history can go on. I thank Nigel Westmaas for writing about me. I offered 11 columns in response to what he wrote. I hope he sees his obligation to those who follow him and his political comrades like Bhagwan, Kwayana, etc. and responds to me so we can separate facts from alternative facts.
Bhagwan had a mouthful to say about me. Some of his fulminations are petty insults, which I have been receiving the past 51 years since I became a UG freshman. I doubt I can challenge the alternative facts of Bhagwan in one column, so the debate here will take another column or maybe two.
First things, first. I am accusing Bhagwan of lying on Roger Luncheon. A statement he attributed to Roger Luncheon in 1993 is so infantile and silly that no decent Guyanese and non-Guyanese familiar with the politics of Roger Luncheon would believe Bhagwan. In lying on Luncheon, I think Bhagwan has permanently damaged his legacy (whatever was left of it).
From all appearances, with the exception of Maurice Odle, the WPA people who are still alive and still involved in politics, like Bonita Bone, Moses Bhagwan, David Hinds, Tacuma Ogunseye, Clive Thomas, and Eusi Kwayana, have been engaged in self-destructive politics since the WPA lost the 1992 general elections. When you analyse the reactionary transformation of their politics, it is a story that maybe has not got a parallel in any other country.
Bhagwan noted that when a delegation of the WPA met with President Cheddi Jagan and Roger Luncheon, Secretary to the Cabinet, to clarify the PPP’s Government offer to Dr. Clive Thomas, Luncheon blurted out, “he’s black and bright.” Is Bhagwan suffering from mental deterioration?
Why would Luncheon say such a stupid thing and say it to a delegation of WPA leaders? I don’t believe that. I am accusing Bhagwan of crass behaviour that should lead to young Guyanese erasing his memory from Guyana’s history. From 1992 until April 21, 2026, the WPA has never accused the PPP leadership of saying what Bhagwan said Luncheon uttered.
Why, in all those decades of anti-PPP politics, have Rupert Roopnaraine, David Hinds, Kwayana, Thomas, and Westmaas never highlighted that Luncheon exclamation? Think of the political capital that would have come to the total anti-PPP opposition had they milked that so-called utterance from Luncheon. David Hinds almost on a daily basis says that PPP uses Black Guyanese as tokens.
That Luncheon thing was a gold mine for him. The reason why it was never repeated since 1993 is because it was never uttered. I am accusing Bhagwan of lying. More importantly, Bhagwan has a dangerous mind.
He knows how racist the WPA has become, so he has given the WPA fuel to spread their racist flame. That was Bhagwan’s intention anyway. Wait and see how Hinds is going to use this fictional thing about Luncheon. He has already. He has circulated Bhagwan’s reply to me. Moses Bhagwan, at age 92, has no respect for his age.
Let’s move on to more infantile expressions of Bhagwan. He advised me that I could have used a primary source in the form of him, who is living, to write about that 1993 episode. Bhagwan should stick to propagandistic politics and not dabble in the study of history. There are different primary sources, the most reliable of which are the actual documents from governments, institutions, and individuals.
One form of primary source that the researcher has to be careful with is a living primary source, that is, the person who is still alive. You have to be careful in assessing what the individual says because he or she can lie more brutally than Dracula. A living primary source that Bhagwan knows well is a man named Hamilton Green. This PNC stalwart has been around longer than Bhagwan. I interviewed Green three times and have read the millions of words he has written. There is a line in a famous calypso that goes like this: “lies, yuh hear lies.”
Green is a liar, Bhagwan is a liar, Kwayana is a liar, Clive Thomas is a liar, Nigel Westmaas is a liar and I am so fed up reading their lies that I am beginning to think I could lie too. Part 2 coming up.
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.