Dear Editor,
There is a three-card-trick line of questioning in the Rodney Inquiry by the PNC to take us into the realm of fantasy to show that the differences the PPP had with the WPA were more than disagreements on the basis of tactics and strategy. The PNC has been perennially trying to deflect its culpability in the assassination of Walter Rodney.
To illustrate the point: In 1980 at the University of Guyana campus there existed two opposition student groups which were the Progressive Youth Organization (UGPYO) and the Committee of Con-cerned Students (CCS) that were affiliated to the PPP and WPA respectively.
The 1980 UG students election was on the cards and Burnham had just handsomely rigged the 1978 referendum by giving himself over seventy five per cent of the votes. We in the UGPYO engaged the CCS in talks to form a coalition student group in order to fight the elections on campus. The basis of the coalition was that the UGPYO were strong in the Faculties of Technology and Natural Sciences and the CCS had an overwhelming presence in the Faculty of Arts. This would have resulted in the coalition winning three of the five faculties, hence the majority.
The major difference in the student election versus the national election was that each faculty vote was counted right after the close of polls in front of all the representatives. In contrast, PNC mischief in relation to the national ballot boxes after the end of polling is well documented. Winning the elections at the highest institution of learning would fly in the face of the farcical results of the referendum.
We actually reached an agreement with the CCS and a coalition grouping named the Students for a Democratic University (SDU) was formed to jointly fight the elections. At the umpteenth moment, CCS withdrew from the coalition with the statement that its parent body the WPA had a principled position against elections under the Burnham dictatorship. Now! There is no amount of reasoning that you can argue with logic of that nature. This was the kind of difference we had with the WPA, purely tactical.
Incidentally, we won the two faculties and lost narrowly in the Faculty of Arts. The PNC introduced the famous special student clause that saw their supporters in the ministries being registered on the day of the elections with voting rights, but who we never saw again after that day.
Yours faithfully,
Reggie Bhagwandin
