Conversation between Walter Rodney and Desmond Trotman
WR: Trotty, I didn’t know that you had invoked my name in defence of election rigging until I read Freddie quoting you. He named the date of your letter in the press. I read it. Trotty, I fought against rigged election perpetuated by a Blackman, Forbes Burnham and even though I was a Pan-Africanist and a revolutionary for Black liberation throughout the world, the dialectics of world revolution led me to oppose Burnham. It was because of rigged election, Burnham was in power and he denied me employment at UG and finally killed me. So Trotty, rigged elections were the cause of my death.
DT: Well, Walter, this is where I have to differ with you. I am not supporting fraudulent elections so there is no basis to continue this conversation.
WR: So let me get this straight, Trotty, there is no fraudulent poll that took place on March 4?
DT: Walter, I do not want to lecture to you but the perspective a researcher uses, determines the conclusion. Yes, there was a rigged election on March 4 but it was the PPP that corrupted the process not the PNC. You are living in the past Walter. This is a new PNC which me, Clive Thomas, Rupert Roopnaraine, David Hinds, Eusi Kwayana, Tacuma Ogunseye, Moses Bhagwan, Nigel Westmaas, Maurice Odle, Bonita Bone and even Andaiye when she was alive, see as a different PNC from those days when we fought Burnham. Today the PNC is led by the best president Guyana has ever had –David Granger.
WR: Trotty I don’t want to be disrespectful but you are talking nonsense. This same Granger has Burnham as his biggest hero and houses four foundations in Burnham’s name in his private residence at D’Urban Backlands where he lived before his presidency. Let me ask you a question; if Granger loves Burnham and Burnham killed me then, Granger would justify my assassination?
DT: I haven’t spoken to the President on how he feels about your assassination but remember we have all moved on and even if he believes Burnham was justified in murdering you, I cannot judge him on that belief. I have to judge him based on what he did for me. I wasn’t working but when he came to power. I was employed at SARA, working alongside Clive Thomas who has also agreed that the PPP rigged the 2020 election. Please remember, the president also made me a GECOM commissioner.
WR: Tell me Desmond, what do you know of Granger? You were not involved in the struggle of the seventies when Burnham was after me and Granger was a big one in the army. You have no direct experience of those days. Granger had to know about the plot to have me killed. At that very time, Joe Harmon was chief of military intelligence. You mean to tell me that Harmon did not know either. Have you read the commission of inquiry on my death? Please do. It is available online.
DT: Why bring up your assassination with me and not one of your most, devoted buddies, Rupert Roopnaraine? It was Rupert himself as an APNU parliamentarian that voted against the public release on the enquiry’s findings when the matter was debated in Parliament in 2017. Can we leave this topic because I think you are talking to the wrong WPA person about it? I want to get back to the PPP rigging the 2020 election.
WR: But the avenues you and your hero, David Granger, have used since March 4 have been exhausted since CCJ was pellucid in its pronouncements – you guys have to declare the election based on the CARICOM recount. You proved Freddie right yesterday when he wrote that you would not turn up for the GECOM meeting in keeping with the CCJ’s ruling? Where were you?
DT: Walter, I was in the cemeteries of Region 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 collecting evidence of the dead who voted for the PPP. Walter I am going to confide something in you. I know you will not tell Freddie because we, WPA people, have to stick together. We are collecting evidence on the jumbies who voted because we intend to file an injunction to stop Irfaan Ali from being sworn in. Walter do you remember the army shot three PPP persons dead during the 1973 elections. Well those persons were still on the voters’ list and they voted in 2020.
WR: Desmond, I am turning in my grave knowing what you, Eusi, Clive, Bonita, Westmaas, Moses Bhagwan, Maurice Odle, David Hinds, Ogunseye and the rest I struggled with have become. Don’t do this to my legacy.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
Headline corrected.
