ON THE 33rd anniversary of the murder of Dr Walter Rodney, the Guyana Government last week announced plans for a Commission of Enquiry into the death of this best known, worldwide, victim of state terrorism under the then dictatorial regime of the late President Forbes Burnham. 

In announcing establishment of the probe at a media briefing Thursday, Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon conceded that “it will be an uphill struggle” for the Commission to come to a conclusion since “several suspected key players are no longer around…”
Those suspected  key players”, as readers  of this column would be aware, are long dead. Nevertheless, whatever the eventual outcome of such a probe, it was quite amusing to learn of the haste with which voices within both the WPA—the party of which Rodney was the pivotal leadership figure—and APNU (the PNC in new clothing)—were anxious to embrace this development.
The voices were those of the WPA’s Rupert Roopnarine, now deputy chairman of APNU, and David Granger, chairman of APNU. Their anxiety to welcome the coming probe sharply contrasts with the deafening silence of both political figures to the initial announcement back in mid April by the  South Africa Government to posthumously honour Forbes Burnham with the prestigious ‘Oliver Tambo” award.
Public silence was the norm for what still functions as the PNC, as well as for its official replacement in parliament,  and more surprisingly so for the WPA since the “news” broke in Guyana in mid April, even earlier abroad, that the government in Pretoria had decided to posthumously confer Burnham with the  Oliver Tambo award.
The prestigious award is normally granted to foreign citizens who have distinguished  themselves in expressing solidarity in its struggles against apartheid. Previous recipients from the Caribbean Community were the now late Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica and President Cheddi Jagan.

Quiet postponement
However, in the face of persistent robust criticisms, via the international and regional media, some bitterly questioning whether the South Africa government  was unaware of the circumstances of Rodney’s death under the then Burnham regime, was to result in a quiet postponement of the Tambo award ceremony that eventually occurred in Pretoria last April 27.
Throughout the raging debate, both the WPA’s Roopnarine and the APNU’s Granger  retained  their conspicuous silence. The dilemma, strange as it may have appeared, would have been challenging for the normally eloquent Roopnarine, as he had shared the top leadership with Rodney at the height of a much sustained, vigorous popular national campaign against what was widely denounced as the “Burnham dictatorship”.
A long the way, however, with Burnham dead, and also his successor, Desmond Hoyte, a downsized WPA, functioning as a small component of a then dominant PNC parliamentary opposition, felt compelled to go along with PNC parliamentarians for approval of a motion to probe the  circumstances of Rodney’s death.
That was only after a significant change in the text that made NO reference to his “assassination” on that night of June 13, 1980 when he was blown apart by a bomb in his car, traced to an explosive device that had originated with someone who became known as a Sergeant of the  Guyana Defence Force — Gregory Smith.
That was long before the current political dispensation with the WPA and APNU sleeping in the same bed.  Now, the normally eloquent Dr  Roopnarine,  in welcoming the government’s decision to establish a commission of enquiry into Rodney’s death, has acknowledged that “it would not be an easy task…’
But back in June 1980, addressing a mass rally at Merriman’s Mall in central Georgetown, had urged thousands of Guyanese mourning the death of Rodney “not to mourn but organize”…
                                      
‘Hands glinting with blood’
Reminding them of the knifing to death in broad daylight of the Roman Catholic priest and photographer,  Fr Bernard Darke (victim of  the House of Israel, a then major terrorist squad of the PNC), “brother” Roopnarine painfully observed:
“And today, over the dead body of our beloved  brother, we say to the international community that the officials of this (Burnham’s) regime who come to you negotiating this or that; sponsoring this or that progressive notion, they come to you with hands glinting with the blood of Walter Rodney…”
Well, when South Africa announced the Oliver Tambo Award for Burnham, ‘brother
Roopnarine’ apparently lost his voice, while his APNU ‘comrade’ was understandably anxious to remain publicly detached from any response.
Now, they both applaud a very long overdue probe into the killing of Walter Rodney by a bomb planted in a walkie-talkie and involving then GDF’s  Gregory Smith, a suspected agent of the PNC regime. He died years later from natural causes in French Guiana to which was facilitated to flee by the government of then President Forbes Burnham.
For now we await the details on the proposed independent commission of enquiry into the death of the great patriot, historian and crusader for justice and freedom of oppressed people everywhere — Dr Walter Rodney.