A sincere apology to Raphael Trotman
Last Saturday, my column, captioned, “What the Raphael Trotman tape revealed,” looked at one of the speeches Mr. Trotman delivered at a public meeting in Bartica during the local government elections. In that article I concentrated on certain aspects of Mr. Trotman’s output and came to certain conclusions. Those conclusions essentially argued that Mr. Trotman had engaged in hate-filled advocacy and a call for ethnic loyalty. After criticism received rejecting the contentions of the column, I am in full agreement that my analysis was misplaced, misdirected and unfair to Mr. Trotman.
I believe the best of intentions can go astray at times. I think humans are prone to errors and misjudgements. This column did a disservice to Mr. Trotman and the people of Bartica, especially those who were present at the meeting, and for that, I offer them all an unreserved and unqualified apology.
I believe an apology is a very important process humans must adopt if civilization is to remain intact. I would like Mr. Trotman to know that I agreed with the criticism I have received about the misanalysis in the column. I agree in my own mind that I made a terrible error.
I want Mr. Trotman to know that there was never any intention to damage his career. I would never want to do that. Some of Mr. Trotman’s close friends are friends of mine. I campaigned heavily for Mr. Trotman’s party in the last general elections. I would not in any way want to see the weakening of the Guyana Government and its Ministers, because I think this entire country knows I worked to have such a government in place, and the entire country knows I would not want the PPP back in government.
I have done thousands and thousands of columns in a long career spanning twenty-seven years. Mistakes are bound to be made. I owe it to my readers and Mr. Trotman to explain where I believe I went wrong. It had to do with Mr. Trotman’s exhortation to Barticians to vote for APNU-AFC because Bartica is an APNU-AFC constituency. I juxtaposed that with Mr. Trotman’s question to the audience, which asked if they see other parties competing against the PPP in the PPP’s areas in the LGE.
The weakness in that juxtaposition is that I sought to elevate party competition to the call to vote race. This is where I believe the column fell down. This is where I believe my analysis went in the wrong direction.
I want Mr. Trotman to know that I have never in any column before attributed any racially-oriented attitude to him. I honestly feel that Mr. Trotman is not a racially-thinking person. I believe that too of all the leaders in the AFC. I have written two columns devoted entirely to Mr. Granger, and I made the unambiguous acknowledgement that Mr. Granger is a decent, anti-racist, all-embracing nationalist. I would put Mr. Trotman in the same category.
I hereby withdraw the obvious implication and correlation in the juxtaposition of those two statements. I am looking at the column as I write. I have read it five times. I conclude I was wrong in assignment of race thought to Mr. Trotman. It is clear to me now, in a more psychologically calm state of mind, that the speech was merely urging people to vote for Mr. Trotman’s party and no other party.
Once again, I apologize for the placement of anything contrary in the column. I am deeply moved at the distress I have caused and that has obviously been experienced by Mr. Trotman, and as someone who has often been maligned with deliberate intentions, I could understand Mr. Trotman’s chagrin at the column. I would like to repeat that in the world of social analysis you are bound to fall down. I think with few exceptions, columnists do get it wrong, and I undoubtedly got it wrong this time. I am happy to express my regrets to Mr. Trotman, because I think it is the decent thing to do. I do have my faults, but I would never refuse to say sorry when I am wrong.
I can tell Mr. Trotman that I do feel contrite, because I know he was hurt by the article. I think any Minister of Government would be, if a widely read opinion-maker makes a damning accusation. I really don’t know what more to say but to admit that it is human to err. And one has to acknowledge where one went wrong. I would extend an invitation to Mr. Trotman for us to meet and have a gentleman’s handshake.
I will close with a tiny informality. In all the years I have known and talked with Mr. Trotman, I have called him Raphael. Let me say to him, “sorry, Raphael.”