THIS PAST MONDAY, while President David Granger’s coalition government in Guyana was still reflecting on official celebratory activities organised to mark the country’s 50th year of political independence, it also had to contend with a sharp, haunting reminder of the assassination, 36 years ago, of Dr Walter Rodney, the internationally famous historian and crusader for freedom and social justice in that CARICOM member state.
Having earlier promised, amid repeated calls from political parties, non-government organisations and prominent personalities, to make public the report of an official Commission of Inquiry into the circumstances of Rodney’s death, President Granger’s administration is behaving as if suffering from amnesia – a favourite tactic of governments.
But Rodney’s widow, Dr Patricia Rodney, and three children, as well as the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), the party of which Walter was its most prominent leader when he was killed by a bomb on the night of June 13, 1980, in Georgetown, and their vigilant network of allies, are in no mood to excuse continuing failure by President Granger to make public the February 8, 2016 report of the inquiry.
Consequently, on Monday 13, to coincide with the 36th anniversary of Walter Rodney’s assassination, a new initiative was launched to mobilise national, regional and international opinion over the Guyana government’s continuing failure to do what was unanimously recommended since last February by an independent commission comprising prominent senior counsel from Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
That is to make public, as recommended, the findings and recommendations of the inquiry. The commission was established by the PPP administration of President Donald Ramotar and spent about two years completing its work, which included public hearings under President Granger’s government.
This new initiative to influence publication of the inquiry report is designed to declare: “Enough is enough, and ask, ‘Why the continued cover-up of staggering facts and findings in the report’?”
The commission found that the then Forbes Burnham-led government was “directly involved in the assassination of Dr Rodney” and also pointed to involvement by ranks of the Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana Police Force.
And the commissioners concluded that Rodney’s death “was an act of violence for political purposes – an act of state terrorism”.
In their renewed initiative to mobilise support for publication of the inquiry report, including new initiatives to involve governments, political parties and non-government organisations, the campaign organisers have urged that the Guyana government be made “to feel a sense of shame” for its continuing failure to release the commission’s findings and recommendations
“Feeling a sense of shame?” It would be surprising to find out that such a virtue could still be located within a government that seems to cherish its capacity to scoff at the perceived weakness of its collective opponents to end what Guyanese – of all segments – often identify as sheer “eye-pass”.
• Rickey Singh is a noted Caribbean journalist.