Dear Editor,
I have taken the time to invest in watching the Rodney Commission of Enquiry and there is one video clip that expresses some statement on Rodney that must be corrected. I surmised that Counsel for the PNC, Mr Basil Williams said, “if he [meaning Rodney] comes to Guyana, what was the police supposed to do?” Then Williams went on to say, “So we are supposed to allow a killer to roam the land? This was extremely unworthy choice of words from Mr Williams. I want to go on record to refute this allegation: Dr Walter Anthony Rodney was no killer. He might have been a warrior, but he was no killer. He was no gunman or PNC thug from the House of Israel.
When the PPP at its 25th Anniversary Conference at Annandale in 1975 changed its political position from “non-cooperation and civil resistance to critical support” for a political system and PNC government that installed itself in power by taking control of the ballot boxes under military escort, such a situation required a warrior. Unfortunately the PPP under the leadership of Cheddi Jagan was not ready or prepared to carry out such a struggle because of their ties to the Soviet bloc.
Guyana found its liberator and warrior in Walter Rodney, an Afro-Guyanese genius, who was born into a working class family and understood the temperature of the people. Rodney represented the spirit of people, the voice of the people and the character of the people. He fought for the downtrodden, the sugar workers, the taxi drivers, the bauxite workers and the working class in general, but the politically connected were extremely unhappy with his presence in Guyana. He was doing something that they could not: connecting with the grassroots and peeling them away one by one from the PNC and PPP.
I know personally of many East Indians who chose Rodney over Jagan but wanted nothing to do with Burnham. It was not race; it was who they saw as their true political representatives. His political elevation was a direct threat to both the PPP and PNC. With Rodney on the ground, the political order in Guyana was about to seismically change when the dark forces directly connected to politicians in Guyana at that time, snuffed out his life. All those in power were happy to see him go and political power was not only controlled by the PNC. Those who have properly read Guyana’s history will always know that both the PPP and PNC have always been politically toxic for Guyana; then and now. They both gained from the demise of Rodney.
In summary, Mr Basil Williams is historically and factually incorrect. Walter Rodney was no killer; he was a liberator.
Yours faithfully,
Sase Singh
