The GHRA confirms that protecting the interest of the Opposition is more important than the findings of the Walter Rodney COI
OLD KAI has been monitoring the public gesticulations of the GHRA over a period of several years and I have come to the conclusion that this organization is a front for the current opposition in Guyana. No one knows who the members of this body are, it is a great mystery, and yet they proclaim to speak on behalf of ‘Guyana’.They do not have to live in fear or be victimized by the current government because of their critical remarks as attacking the PPP/C Administration has been a popular pastime for the opposition front organizations, especially those in the media. We are not in the days of the brutal dictatorship, where your fate could have been similar to that of Father Darke or countless others.
So why remain in hiding? Is it because the Guyanese people will then be able to confirm what they have long suspected?
This aside, the GHRA has come out all guns blazing against the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry. As if by some strange coincidence, their attack against the CoI quickly followed that of the PNCR which has also indicated that they will not participate in the Inquiry.
Their concerns are also identical in nature which is further fuelling speculation of a clandestine collaboration to undermine our nation’s search for the truth regarding the death of Dr. Walter Rodney.
The confusion and panic brought on by the commencement of the COI is quite evident as according to media reports, “The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) believes that the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the assassination of Walter Rodney is specifically targeting the period when the PNC was in government.”
Was Dr. Rodney assassinated in 1886 in some far off Asian country? Was he assassinated in Jamaica or Tanzania? Was he assassinated in 1995 right here in Guyana? Which period exactly does the PNCR expect the Commission of Inquiry to focus on other than on June 13, 1980, when, in the vicinity of the Camp Street prison, Georgetown, Guyana, South America, there was an explosion, killing Walter Anthony Rodney and injuring his brother, Donald. The PNC dictatorship was in full swing then, even our Supreme Court had to fly its party flag above our national flag. Do they want us to pretend their period in government did not exist?
The PNCR, now APNU, is clearly spooked, they sound very confused, almost desperate. Surely, they have nothing to worry about if , as they have publicly claimed all along, they were not involved in Dr. Rodney’s assassination.
There is another important equation in play here which I will discuss in the next edition; but let us return to the GHRA, as clearly they also seem equally confused.
One of their concerns in the Terms of Reference for the CoI is that it rules out the process of ethnic healing between the major races in Guyana, “That clause requires the COI to investigate the extent to which the many quasi-political military organizations existing in Guyana at the time of Rodney’s death, were tasked with surveillance against the ‘political opposition’, rather than against the WPA. In this respect, the clause provides an opportunity for inserting the ruling PPP into events in which it was marginal at the time, and for generating a stream of horror stories from that era into the work of the Commission, with rich potential for stirring up Indo-Guyanese resentment against the PNC.”
First of all, the death of Dr. Rodney confirms that Guyanese irrespective of their race, creed or color all suffered during this period, contrary to what the Guyana Human Right Association would have us believe today. The GHRA statement is also advocating that a section of the Guyanese population must be prevented from contributing to the investigation of the Commission solely because of their ethnicity; and at the same time, it makes light in a ridiculing fashion the experiences of these people.
It then contradicts itself by, on one hand saying “the clause provides an opportunity for inserting the PPP into events in which it was marginal at the time”, but immediately after warns that it would generate “a stream of horror stories from that era”. So if, as the GHRA claims, the PPP was marginal at the time, why worry about a flood of experiences and accounts during that period?
The GHRA clearly is more concerned about protecting the interest of opposition than it is about finally getting to the truth of Dr. Rodney’s death and it is prepared to make all manner of wild and insensitive accusations in the process.
What could be so damaging and alarming about the possible findings of the Commission of Inquiry, or does the GHRA already know who killed Dr. Walter Rodney?