Shame on those opposing the Rodney CoI
I RECENTLY returned from the Moruca Sub-Region, Region One, and upon my return to Georgetown, I was greeted with the shocking but not surprising news in your newspaper that the PNC/APNU, but more particularly the WPA and GHRA, are uncooperative with the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the death of Dr. Walter Rodney, a world-renowned historian, politician and a co-leader of the Working Peoples Alliance (WPA). Shame on the PNC, WPA and GHRA!
In a Stabroek News article of Saturday May 4th, 2013 under the caption “No justifiable reason for withdrawal of South Africa award to Burnham”, PNCR leader David Granger said in relation to Rodney’s murder, “The PNC has done everything legally possible; everything humanely possible to refute the allegations made against members of our Party as to the involvement in the murder. We certainly don’t accept it and we have always held out that we are willing to have an inquiry and give evidence at any forum.”
Well, the forum has arrived in the form of the COI, but it now seems that Granger and his PNC Party are trembling and backing off from the COI on the basis of an excuse that one of the members of Commission is known to the government.
It is being said that Granger can be likened to a dog that eats its own vomit. If the PNC is innocent of the allegations of Rodney’ murder, then why is it creating so-called concerns for it not to appear before the COI to “give evidence” as Granger had boasted in the mentioned quotation of the SN article?
I am shocked at the behaviour of the WPA, the party which was co-founded and led by Dr. Rodney, for its non-cooperation with the COI on the weak basis of its lame excuse of objecting to one of the Terms of Reference of the Rodney COI.
Is the WPA ashamed to say that some of Burnham’s military henchmen penetrated the ranks of the WPA in the 1970s? Is the WPA’s stance a deliberate ploy not to cooperate with the Rodney COI, since it is now in bed with the PNC, formerly led by Burnham, who was accused by thousands of Guyanese and the WPA itself of Rodney’s assassination?
It was Eddi Rodney who said, “Today, it is a sad travesty to see former Rodneyites like Dr. Rupert Roopnarine taking instruction from Burnhamite men like David Granger. It sickens the stomach to see the betrayal of their leader’s legacy by these former comrades (SN May 4th, 2013).” Shame on the WPA!
The GHRA’s position is only to be expected, and I condemn this so-called Human Rights cabal as being a mouthpiece for criminals and Guyana’s useless Parliamentary opposition, and parroting what they say in relation to the Rodney COI.
The GHRA can merely be qualified as a political front for the PNC/APNU and AFC. Shame on this so-called Human Rights body.
Peter Persaud