Co-leader of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine has dismissed suggestions that the evidence coming out during the ongoing inquiry into the death of Dr Walter Rodney would affect the relationship the party shares with the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR).
The PNC, then the party in government, has long been implicated in the June 13, 1980 death of Dr. Rodney, who was a co-leader of the WPA at the time.
WPA is part of the main opposition coalition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), which includes the PNCR as its main constituent.
Speaking to reporters yesterday at the end of a public hearing held by the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) appointed to probe Rodney’s death, Dr. Roopnaraine said, “We certainly believe that it will not affect the relationship between the PNC and WPA because when we entered into a political partnership with the PNC, our eyes were wide open. We did not sleep walk into a partnership.”
He said the WPA “knew what we knew” when it entered into the partnership.
“We believe that we took a giant step in the direction of national reconciliation because we believe that this is what the country needs,” he added.
Another WPA stalwart Eusi Kwayana, who is currently testifying before the CoI, has said that that all the evidence points to the PNC and a Guyana Defence Force officer, Gregory Smith. Smith, now deceased, was said to have been the person who gave Rodney a walkie-talkie that exploded, killing him in the process.
