Dear Editor,
I refer to an article in  Sunday Stabroek May 16, 2010 captioned ‘Raphael Trotman denies accusation he scuttled “third force” before 2006 election.’

The article in its attempt to clarify issues surrounding the collapse of the GTF has – and I do not believe that this has been deliberately done – misrepresented the thrust of my letter and in the process has attributed to me and by extension the WPA, statements/allegations against Raphael Trotman which we did not make. The following underscores this point: “Trotman has recently been criticized by WPA Pro-gramme Manager Desmond Trotman and Unity Party Leader Joey Jagan who have both blamed him and the party for scuttling an attempt to get a ‘third force’ movement off the ground in the run-up to the 2006 elections. In particular Desmond Trotman charged in a recent letter (Stabroek News, May 6, 2010) that the AFC leader was responsible for the false accusation that the PNCR, the WPA, the Unity Party and Vision for Guyana signed an agreement at the US State department to contest the 2006 general elections jointly.”

Whether or not Joey Jagan responds to the writer of the article is a matter which he alone will decide on. My concern, however, is about setting the record straight on WPA’s and on my own behalf. This I will now proceed to do. My first point is that WPA has no interest whatsoever in practising deceit and neither do we indulge in stabbing others in the back. Ours has always been and will continue to be one of addressing issues frontally and fearlessly. While the WPA in the past suffered tremendously and continues to suffer as a result of other persons’ deceitful practices we have never found the time nor have we been willing to reciprocate.

The second point I wish to make is that neither WPA nor the undersigned has accused Raphael Trotman of anything. I do not know what drove Raphael to that conclusion. I will say though that any attempt to make the WPA culpable for the events on that day is yet another attempt to denigrate the party. The allegations against the Leader of the AFC were made by the Leader of GAP, Paul Hardy, not once, but on three separate occasions on the day of the collapse. The first occasion was at the 3pm meeting, which was held exclusively with Prof Thomas at Ravi Dev’s request. The second was at the 4pm Guidance Council meeting when Hardy announced GAP’s withdrawal from the GTF and the third occasion was when Joey Jagan arrived at the meeting and was apprised of the developments. All that I did in my letter was to narrate for the benefit of members of the public the events on that day. I am sure readers will have surmised without being told, that the issue of and reasons for GAP’s withdrawal, would have been discussed on more than one occasion by Hardy, Dev and Franklin prior to Dev requesting the meeting with Thomas. Their positions would have been reviewed and fine tuned on the day of the meeting before they would have met with Thomas. It is highly unlikely that any of them would have gone into that meeting without having agreed in advance on their positions.

In light of the denial by Raphael Trotman of any knowledge of the existence of the “alleged agreement between the WPA, PNCR, Vision for Guyana and Unity Party, which it was claimed these parties signed at the US State Department” and his deeming of reference to it as “preposterous and unbelievable,” he owes it both to himself and to his party to demand an explanation from Hardy, Franklin and Dev about what prompted them to make such serious allegations against him. That is where his focus has to be directed.

In keeping with the spirit of frankness with which Raphael and I have always conducted our discussions and out of the respect we share for each other, I must take this opportunity to remind him that in as much as he found the allegations against the four parties, which Hardy attributed to him as being “preposterous and unbelievable” as well as “childish and immature” it cannot be denied that it was the basis on which GAP announced its withdrawal from the GTF. As I had indicated earlier, Hardy, on no less than three occasions that day said that the information originated from Raphael himself. What WPA, Unity Party and Vision for Guyana believed that day was therefore, totally irrelevant in the circumstances. However, what was relevant and important was what Hardy said they were told by Raphael and what he (Hardy), Dev and Franklin not only believed but acted on. Put another way, it was not the information per se which forced them to act but also the source from which Hardy claimed the information originated.

Raphael must also remember that Hardy at the meeting had also indicated that he, Raphael, had promised to give him a copy of the statement that afternoon and Hardy in turn had committed to deliver via Franklin, a copy to Thomas’ home before the afternoon was out.

If nothing else there is one thing I am absolutely sure about. I am prepared to put my head on the chopping block that both Dev and Franklin fully concurred with the reasons Hardy advanced for withdrawing from the group. Neither of them sought to distance himself from Hardy’s position during the course of the GC meeting and neither of them did so during the course of the 3pm meeting with Thomas.

I was present at the GC meeting at 4pm and have Prof Thomas’ very reliable assurance on the developments at the 3pm meeting.

My response to Raphael Trotman’s point that the issue could have been cleared up through a phone call is simply this: Such a phone call was not necessary. In the WPA we were always aware that the allegation was one which was made purely for political expediency by a set of con artists, who pontificated on placing the country first but had other interests and masters to serve. We knew the allegation was without merit and could not withstand scrutiny. The fact that four years after the event the copy of the agreement which was promised to Thomas is still to see the light of day is an indication that those who were responsible for the collapse of the GTF went to great lengths and relied heavily on a phantom document to jettison a process which they had set in motion, just a few short days before.

Finally, I want to say that as the thirtieth anniversary of Walter Rodney’s assassination approaches, the founding principles of the party continue to guide us in our relationship to people and organizations we are in contact with.  We remain particularly concerned about the plight of workers and the rape of the industrial relations process and the violations by the Minister of Labour of laws protecting the rights of workers, issues of racial discrimination, the ongoing brutalization and exploitation of women and children, and the imposition by the government of some of the most draconian measures which militate against theirs and their families’ advancement. Corruption by high and low political officials, the ripping off of the country’s resources by government officials and their cronies, the dominance of the economy by the drug lords and their influence over the political directorate and the security arms of the state, continue to engage our attention and will continue to do so until they are eradicated. In the WPA we remain committed to doing all we can to help in improving the living conditions of the people, particularly the poor and the powerless. In this regard we continue to believe as we have always believed that it is only by submerging our personal egos and political ambitions and working in a united, systematic way to advance the interest of the people of the country that we can begin to move Guyana out of the morass into which it has sunk. Only time will determine who are really committed to this path.

Yours faithfully,
Desmond Trotman