Yesu Persaud, Khemraj Ramjattan, Nigel Hughes, Glenn Lall and…
An activist will never get away from the memories of life under dictatorial power. Wherever you go, there will be a lingering motif to remind you of the reign of dictatorship. Three such memories pierced my heart last week I was in the offices of Transport and Harbours when Bert Wilkinson popped up behind me and said, “why you gat duh steering wheel lock on yuh car fuh; yuh ain’t know times change.” Bert was referring to the large hook I use on the steering wheel. I did that for over ten years because I was honestly afraid that agents from the PPP Government would steal my car and destroy it. Bert was right; times have changed. I don’t have the trepidation any longer, so I should discard Dr. Hook. Then there is the revelation by Sean Hinds that he knows who was behind the 2010 attack on me. Thirdly, I took to lunch on Thursday at Excellence Restaurant on Charlotte Street, a group of AFC activists I met during the 2015 election. Dennis Atwell took centre stage. I told the group of the incident in 2012 when Dennis risked his life to save me after some PPP agents broke into my car, stole my documents and lured us into a lonely street in a West Coast village to retrieve them With the election of the APNU-AFC coalition those dangers are behind me. I doubt the PPP can seek to kill me again, because I cannot see the PPP in power again, and at my age if they do return, I would be happily dead and gone. Those were the terrible nights of the long knives. Last week with those three instances of memories, I thought of my survival and the people that made such survival possible. Four names came to mind – Yesu Persaud, Khemraj Ramjattan, Nigel Hughes and Glenn Lall When I returned to Guyana after the American invasion of Grenada, I had no money, no job. President Burnham banned me and my wife from employment. My stuff arrived in Guyana weeks after. I had a colossal library. UG library was bare because of foreign exchange scarcity. UG library needed the books. I needed money. Yesu Persaud through the Partnership of the Americas organization bought my library for the University. Yesu Persaud has always been there for me when times were very, very rough. I remember I had to pay a huge cost over a human rights case I lost when I took UG to court. He was there to put up that cost. Yesu Persaud will always be special to me When I met Khemraj Ramjattan, he was the leader of the youth arm of the PPP and I was a critic of the PPP. Khemraj never let politics come between our friendship. I cannot recall the court cases Khemraj has done for me without charging even a dollar. Libel after libel, Khemraj would appear for me. This is a different politician who has a huge future in Guyana. I met Nigel Hughes in 1989 when the police charged me for arson in front of the UG gate during the protest against the 1989 budget. The WPA arranged for Nigel to appear for me at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court. From that day, I came to respect Nigel immensely. For five years he has defended me in the Jagdeo libel without any charge. Together with Khemraj, he succeeded in getting Juan Edghill’s attempt to imprison me thrown out. Nigel and Khemraj have prevented Khurshid Sattaur from continuously harassing me. I believe most sincerely in my heart that Guyana is better off with politicians like Khemraj and Nigel. I started writing for the Kaieteur News after David de Caires dropped my Stabroek News columns at the insistence of Miles Fitzpatrick after a complaint made by Jocelyn Dow, an incident, historian Anna Benjamin failed to include when she wrote her history of the Stabroek News. Looking back at my days at the Stabroek News, it was a most idiotic thing for me to have done. There was absolutely no reason why a dark-skinned nobody like me should have been writing for a newspaper whose ownership was from the crÈme de la crÈme of white society. Glenn Lall called me in, told me he was starting a newspaper and he would like me to write for it. I have been at the Kaieteur News since then. I think in all honesty, these four persons made my survival possible during the PPP dictatorship. Maybe one day, if my funds allow, I’ll buy a nice gift for each of them. Maybe Lall could increase my stipend and I’ll do that right away. I live less than a minute drive from Giftland OfficeMax.
