Dr Walter Rodney’s family welcomes COI
AFTER a period of just under eight months the request made by the Walter Rodney family through the widow of Dr Walter Rodney and the Walter Rodney Foundation, (www.walterrodneyfoundation.org); for the authorisation of a Presidential Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the circumstances of the death of the great Marxist scholar and historian, has been responded to with the Gazetting of the COI on February 8, 2014.
Dr WALTER RODNEY
The process of engaging with political authorities over the three decades has been a mixed one, especially as it is generally known, the governments of the People’s National Congress, notably the Hoyte regime, failed to ensure that there was a comprehensive and full COI investigation that would comply with the standards and rigours of a Presidential Commission as set out under the relevant Act (Cap 19:03).
It is necessary to recount that with the passage of time there is bound to be secondary features impacting on the institutional and individual stakeholder memories in terms of measuring up to a COI.
However; despite these aspects it is necessary to draw analogies with other Tribunals as well as Inquiry panel probes into the unlawful or criminal deaths of martyrs such as the Chilean Victor Jara, murdered by Pinochet Ugarte’s fascist generals, or the Inquiry into the death and disappearance of scores of peasants in Guatemala during the rule of General Rios Montt.
These are atrocities that occurred decades ago and resulted from consistent campaigning as well as evidence collating processing.
The Rodney family is supportive of the selection procedures followed whereby the chairman and other members of the Commission were formulated.
It is of considerable significance to note that the matters considered incidental/consequential does not exclude individuals or representatives of organisations from appearing before the COI.
The recommendations of President Donald Ramotar lend themselves to a comprehensive outcome especially as the Inquiry shall be ‘conducted in Georgetown and elsewhere as the Chairman may determine’.
Additionally the actual commencement of the COI work should not be impeded given that the administration had the prevision to avoid going public with any decision or tentative proposal without establishing some basic reality verifications and research groundwork.
The extent to which a ‘consultative’ dimension emerged between the Rodney family/the WRF and the Guyana Head of State, H E Donald Ramotar impacted on the authorisation of the Commission in the public interest, also augurs well for a justice supported comprehensive process.
Rodney’s family and especially an extended network of relatives, friends, associates and supporters of the now universally acclaimed people’s liberation leader, must at this ‘conjuncture’ demonstrate by their deeds a renewed commitment to the vision he had for a people’s Guyana, influenced as that would have been by other socialist or socialist ‘transitional’ and Meridian/Atlanticist movements of the 1970s.
The 2014 Walter Rodney COI therefore, holds out the alternative for an improved degree of community trust based on openness and honesty of purpose, on integrity and mutual respect for all racial and ethnic groups regardless of status and creed.
For all those reasons the Ramotar administration must be commended for ensuring at the highest level its commitment to bringing a closure to the ultimate Rodney affair – the circumstances of the June 13, 1980 bomb blast in Georgetown.
By Eddi Rodney