THE proclaimed hero of the former WPA executive, Dr Wazir Mohamed, is Dr Rupert Roopnaraine. Mohamed is old enough to know that charity begins at home. He should have lectured his hero before he died, rather than attempting to educate me on what moral values are (Kaieteur News, March 16, 2026, page 6).
I want to write the following line with pellucid forcefulness: Dr Mohamed has failed in his attempt. His guiding values are not mine. Dr Mohamed and I are opposites when it comes to the values that hold society together. Mohamed writes, “I come from an upright family with a tradition for the dead.” I come from a mother and father who, unlike the parents of Mohamed, never owned a piece of land and lived in a rented house until they both died.
I learnt my moral values from them and I am in my 70s and can walk this world with my head high – I have never violated the sacred values civilisation rests on. I will try to lecture Mohamed on what those values are. If I do not succeed, then it would be umpteen times I have failed, because humans are a disappointing species.
I grew up in a multi-racial ambience in South Georgetown. Four of my siblings married African men and women. I have never even vaguely lit a torch that had a racial flash. My life has been sandwiched between heroes of all races in Guyana. The trio of three Portuguese Guyanese- Fred Philips, Sister Mary Noel Menezes and Father Andrew Morrison are my heroes. Yesu Persaud, an Indian, is my hero. Dr Rudy James, an African, is my hero. I owe an immense debt to Anil Nandlall, an Indian whom I can never repay. Courtney Benn and Clem Duncan, two Africans of Guyanese nationality, are two of the people I admire and respect.
Mohamed has to reply to Ravi Dev, not Frederick Kissoon. Dev said on the Freddie Kissoon Show that Mohamed’s hero, Rupert Roopnaraine, told him that he is more comfortable among Africans than Indians. I have a terrible confession to make. Though I am equally comfortable among all ethnic types, I am more comfortable among animals than homo sapiens.
Dr Wazir Mohamed belongs to a political entity, the Working People’s Alliance, that since 2020 has engaged in more racist advocacy than any political party in the history of this country. Dr Mohamed shares a close socialisation process with those people. I never would accept such people in my world, so Mohamed cannot delineate for me the moral values of human existence.
Dr Mohamed, when he comes to Guyana, can be seen hobnobbing with company that belongs to the Mulatto/Creole class (MCC), a stratum of society that sees Guyanese society through the lenses of class and colour. I knew members of that class saw people like me as dark-skinned East Indians of low-income background who entered politics without pedigree. I saw that first hand when I was a columnist with Stabroek News. I saw in that newspaper how MCC personalities differentiate between people based on colour and class origin.
It is unfortunate that Mohamed couldn’t convert his hero, Dr Roopnaraine, to a political agenda where ordinary people were equally treated. I say without fear of contradiction that Roopnaraine was one of Guyana’s enduring MCC personalities whose sole reason for disliking the PPP and its leaders was that he thought that they were not Caribbean Anglo-Saxons. He was one of the Caribbean’s leading Caribbean Anglo-Saxons and those were the people he embraced.
Mohamed wrote: “I [meaning him] do not write as a detached observer but as an active participant in the process.” Unlike Mohamed, I live in Guyana, where I write as an overzealous participant in my country’s politics and it was from that vantage point that I saw what position Mohamed’s colleagues in the WPA took in relation to the March 2020 elections drama. The list includes some close friends of Mohamed —Rupert Roopnaraine, Clive Thomas, Eusi Kwayana, Moses Bhagwan, Nigel Westmaas, Alissa Trotz, and yes, guess who — the man himself, Dr. Wazir Mohamed.
I conclude with a rejection of two banalities that Mohamed threw at me. He cried that contrary to fairness, the Chronicle did not publish his letter on me. Is Mohamed telling me that Stabroek News was a meticulous observer of fairness? I was declared persona non grata by Mohamed’s favourite newspaper.
Secondly, he accused me of disrespect for attacking (his word) Roopnaraine after he died. I did not attack Roopnaraine. I haven’t attacked anyone after they died, including Roopnaraine. I did was I was trained to do – write an analysis of iconic, important people, dead or alive, so history can be preserved and a nation can learn from that history.
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.
