Dear Editor,
I refer to Mr Annan Boodram’s letter, ‘We must eschew the “us” vs “them” mentality in the New Year’ (SN, December 31). Now Mr Boodram is certainly entitled to his notions of Dr Cheddi Jagan being a Gandhi like figure who should be called ‘bhapu,’ but I cannot allow him to slander the contributions of Dr Walter Rodney and the WPA in their struggle to free Guyana from PNC dictatorship in the late 1970s. Unlike the Boodrams, Misirs, Randy, et al, I as a teenager was personally involved in the struggle and suffered violence at the hands of PNC thugs and detention by PNC controlled police. When some Indians falsify the struggle against the PNC they also demean my small personal contribution and so I must rebut them.
Firstly Dr Jagan and the PPP did not define Burnham’s PNC as a dictatorship. Dr Jagan argued that because Burnham was anti-imperialist and socialist oriented he could not be a dictator. Dr Jagan’s position was that Burnham was authoritarian. Dr Jagan was directed by the Communist Party of Cuba to support Burnham and he complied with critical support in 1975. The WPA countered that Burnham’s adherence to rigged elections made him a dictator and adopted the tactic of critical exposure.
Secondly, Dr Jagan and the PPP in 1977 called on the PNC to form a National Patriotic Front Government to defend Guyana from imperialism, and it called the 135 days sugar strike to force the PNC to aquiesce. The WPA had begun its mass meetings and rallies all over Guyana to remove Burnham. Those events were attended by large multi-racial crowds. Dr Rodney (and Dr Rupert Roopnaraine ) drew large crowds in the sugar belt, whilst Dr Jagan was relegated to bottom-house meetings. At the point when bauxite workers went on strike, the PNC was weakened, the PPP marginalised, and the WPA had grown in strength, Dr Jagan called off the sugar strike.
Thirdly, during 1978-79 when the WPA led almost daily street protests against the PNC the PPP ordered its supporters not to join in WPA activities. Whilst PPP leaders appeared in public with WPA leaders, in private they ridiculed Dr Rodney and his cadres as being adventurists. Mr Boodram and all of his ilk should note that this period saw the PNC unleash lethal violence on the WPA’s second tier leadership with almost a score of its activists (all Africans) being assassinated by Burnham’s death squad. So threatened by the WPA was Burnham that he had the GDF prepare and issue a WPA recognition handbook with pictures of all the movement’s key leaders and activists.
Fourthly, in 1980 the PPP and PNC commenced secret power-sharing talks. Whilst the PPP postured as an ally of the WPA, Burnham plotted the assassination of Dr Rodney. In June 1980 Dr Rodney was killed by a remote explosive device that was planted on him by a GDF member. The PPP cried murder and took part in the funeral procession from the East Coast to Georgetown. I walked alongside Ms Janet Jagan. However the PPP continued its power-sharing talks with the PNC and in early 1985 the 2 parties agreed to contest elections on a joint slate and to build socialism.
I have merely outlined the facts. From where I stand no spin is required. Any rational person would conclude that it was the WPA and Dr Rodney who waged the crucial and vital battles against the PNC dictatorship and paid the ultimate price in African lives and blood.
Mr Boodram and his acolytes should be paying homage to the likes of Dr David Hinds and Tacuma Ogunseye for their struggles against Burnham. I challenge Messrs Boodram, Misir, Randy Persaud, Bisram, and their likes to name a PPP leader who paid the price that Hinds and Ogunseye suffered in the golden era of political struggle to remove Burnham.
Yours faithfully,
Malcolm Harripaul
