Dear Editor,
Why on earth is the argument about the Abraham family tragedy still going on the Wednesday Rambler asked in a short `editorial’ at the end of his column of Wednesday, November 7, 2007. Sir, my answer to this question is the arguments on what went wrong will go on until the wrong doers are unmasked be they dead or alive.
Fact, truth and history of the evil events in Guyana in the turbulent 60s may be known if local Police CID, British M1-5 and Scotland Yard intelligence files are opened up for examination and people are willing to talk at an inquiry as suggested by Professor Alissa Trotz, Historian Nigel Westmaas, Mayor Hamilton Green, and others. Hopefully, a judicial inquiry headed by an international human rights personality like Bishop Desmond Tutu, Louise Arbour or Carla del Ponte will motivate people with information and concern for the truth to testify on oath even if reconciliation remains elusive.
However, since I am now resigned into believing that it is hopeless for me to expect any other surviving colonial civil servant of the era of Arthur Abraham to “speak up” in defence of his character and integrity I have decided to write what little I know of the gentleman. I guess I may be seen as being foolish to expect that what I say may put an end to the sad story of a tragedy that has left a mysterious damning stain on the fabric of Guyanese society.
Like Mr Frederick Kissoon, I have often heard that Mr Abraham and seven of his children perished in a fire in his home at 99 Hadfield Street, Stabroek, Georgetown, because as “Jagan’s Per-manent Secretary” he was “giving out information” to the United Force (UF) of which he was a supporter and one of his daughters was a well-known political activist of that party. The UF was seen as a conservative political party under the leadership of Mr. Peter d’Aguiar, a wealthy Guyanese industrialist of Portuguese heritage.
I remember what Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran pastor in the Berlin suburb of Dahlum, is reported to have said of certain events in Nazi Germany: “The Nazis first came for the homosexuals, and I did not speak up, because I was not a homosexual. Then they came for the communists, and I was not a communist, so I did not speak up. Then they came for the Jews. I did not speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I was a Protestant so I did not speak up. Then they came for me. And, by that time, there was no one to speak for anyone.” Pastor Niemoller was a decorated World War I U-Boat Captain and a powerful voice of dissent in Germany. He was not killed by the SS, but he was imprisoned in Flossenberg.
The silence of survivors of the urban middle class community who knew Arthur Abraham is almost deafening as if Arthur Abraham did not exist. However, as a “rural farm boy” of Buxton, my native village, I now break my silence and commit to this letter what I know of Arthur Abraham. He was Secretary to the Governor, and in that office, he functioned like a ministerial Permanent Sec-retary to His Excellency. He was also Clerk (de facto Secretary) to Her Majesty’s 1957-1961 Executive Council which was the policy making body of the then Government of British Guiana. He was not Dr Jagan’s Permanent Secretary. He was of course, privy to state secrets and official information in the Governor’s Office and in the Executive Council during his tenure as Secretary to the Governor and Clerk to the Executive Council.
However, giving out of information in respect of state matters to unauthorized sources was a criminal offence under the Oath of Office of Secretary to the Governor, the Oath of Office of Clerk to the Executive Council and the Official Secrets Act of the Civil Service. Arthur Abraham would have been formally sworn to faithfully and loyally uphold the conditions of these statutory instruments.
Dr Jagan was Premier and Minister of Development and Planning in the new government that came into office soon after the August 16, 1961 general election. Arthur Abraham helped briefly in the transition of the Executive Council to the Council of Ministers, after which he proceeded on his vacation leave. The permanent secretaries to Dr. Jagan were Mr Clifton Low a Chee and Mr Harold Rabindranath Persaud.
Mr Low a Chee was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry when Dr Jagan was Minister of Trade and Industry in the previous 1957 government. Therefore, it was functionally proper for him to continue as Permanent Secretary to Dr Jagan in the new 1961 government. However, after he had served as Permanent Secretary in the new government for about eight months from August 1961, Mr Low a Chee was transferred to the Customs and Excise Department as Chief Customs and Excise Officer. Mr Harold Persaud replaced him as Permanent Secretary to Dr Jagan; and later, on January 02, 1963, I assumed duty in the Secretariat of the Council of Ministers as the Assistant Secretary to the Council as I had served earlier in 1962 in the Office of the Premier.
Born 22 October 1912 in Georgetown, Guyana, Arthur Alexander Abraham was 52 years of age when he died in the fire in his home on the night of Friday, June 12, 1964. He was at the time, Permanent Secretary, Minis-try of Works and Hydraulics, the ministry to which he was posted after he had returned from Brazil where he and his wife had spent part of his vacation leave. Mr Ram Karran, popularly know as Boysie Ramkarran, was the Minister of Works and Hydraulics. Mr Abraham’s posting was a lateral one. It was not a demotion. Lateral transfers of senior officers between ministries and departments were normal management practices in the civil service especially at the end of the term of one government and the beginning of the term of another government.
Educated at St Stanislaus College, Georgetown, Arthur Abraham was a highly respected civil servant of his time, a gentleman and a good family man especially in the community of the Roman Catholic Church. He was known to live by the golden rules of what a good civil servant should be – among other things, above suspicion and above reproach. I was fortunate to have had the benefit of his wise counsel from time to time when I was attached to the Government Information Services (GIS) as an Administrative Cadet (ADC). I worked on the “Patterns of Progress” booklet and the “How to Vote” documentary film, both of which were produced by GIS for the publicity exercises of the 1961 general election.
I was also happy to see Mr Abraham at the swearing-in ceremony when Dr Cheddi Jagan took the Oath of Office as Premier of British Guiana soon after the August 16, 1961 general election. Mr Abraham was there as Secretary to the Governor. I attended with Mr A J Seymour, Chief Information Officer, and two photographers of the Films Division of GIS. Dr Jagan upheld the Bhagwat Gita when the oath was administered to him by Chief Justice, Sir Joseph Alexander Luckhoo, Jnr, in the presence of Governor Sir Ralph Grey, and Mr Abraham. I have a copy of the photograph of the ceremony.
Mrs Janet Jagan was recently reported in the Guyana media as expressing her admirable assessment of Arthur Abraham and the esteemed regard the government and the PPP had for him. Mrs Jagan was the Minister of Labour, Health and Housing in the 1957 government and one of three surviving PPP ministers of her time. The other two surviving ministers are Mr Brindley Benn who was Minister of Natural Resources and Mr Balram Singh Rai who was Minister of Community Development and Education.
So far, Mrs Jagan has spoken. I now add my voice. Is there no one else to speak up for Arthur Abraham? The “sin of silence” is both haunting and damning.
Yours faithfully,
Rampersaud Tiwari
