Dear Editor,
David Hill, alias Rabbi Edward Emanuel Washington, committed many acts of injustice against the Guyanese people. Jim Jones committed crimes including mass murder against thousands of Americans who were overwhelmingly African Americans. I will address the latter, as an issue, at a Black History Month event at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) in Washington DC on February 17, 2015.
In relation to both men, a question that ought to be formulated is: why did the Forbes Burnham (LFSB), the USA, and particularly the US Embassy in Georgetown, allow these men to commit crimes in Guyana? Was the context the same, as at the time, when LFSB circulated the document on the Beria Plot at his infamous press conference November 30, 1968 (SN Letter Column December 31/2014)?
The Guyana Forum and the Guyanese Research and Representation Services (GRRS) during 1979-1981, of which I was a Co-Editor and General Coordinator respectively, denounced the activities of Rabbi Washington in Guyana and the House of Israel (Guyana Forum Vol 1 No 2 December 1979). I authored a 62-page booklet entitled “Guyana: A Nation State Too Young To Die” that was published by (CARISFORM/No 6/May 1987). On the cover of the booklet is a photo of a member of the House of Israel (with four others hovering over Father Darke) plunging a knife into Father Darke in broad daylight. The House of Israel was denounced by opposition political parties of that period for violence, break down the door banditry and murder. In the 1992 elections campaign, I did a political campaign ad together with Claudius London calling on Desmond Hoyte to expel the Rabbi from Guyana because he was advocating an Armageddon (a race war). We reproduced his voice and words from a BBC programme in which the Rabbi and Burnham provided interviews. The company never aired the ad. It is my belief that either the entrepreneur who owned the company or the young man who taped the ad sent it to Desmond Hoyte. The company had the only copy of the ad. Two days after we produced the ad, that was never aired, the US Ambassador accompanied the Rabbi to the airport. It was the DLM’s view at the time that the Rabbi would have been used to initiate a race war to prevent an alternative government to the PNC taking office.
I was able in 1982 to make an assessment of Rabbi Washington. After I was fired from UG in March 1982 (Minutes of dismissal published in SN Letter Column/January 19, 2015 ), I co-founded the RWA-FDU which later evolved into the DLM-NWU. A businessman who was a leader in CML John’s PDM, invited me for a chat at his business and residence. He and I had an extensive conversation about Guyanese politics. He said that his son was a student at UG and was upset that I was fired and he felt it was not just. He, however, warned me that I was putting my life at risk by speaking out against the PNC dictatorship. Then, when I was about to leave after about two hours of conversation, he said to me that he wanted me to return on a certain date because I needed to meet an important man. I requested details but he told me, “yuh just come back man and trust me the information will be useful.”
I returned about two weeks later, he spoke to me in his shop for about five minutes then he said “go upstairs the man I told you about is here.” Lo and behold, when I got upstairs, it was none other than the Rabbi Emmanuel Washington grinning as he said to me “sit down man and let us talk.” He had read the Guyana Forum and he heard me publicly denounce the House of Israel as a practitioner of break down the door banditry. To make a long story short, he told me among other things that he knew who gave the order to kill Rodney. He claimed that he tried to forewarn Rodney at his home via a phone call but they refused to take his call. He spent a lot of time explaining that it was not his members who usually broke up meetings and did break down the door banditry, but that it was the PNC members, police and soldiers who wore House of Israel clothes. He also said that LFSB treated him worse than a dog and would often say to him “toothless, come here.” He said that even though he was married to a Guyanese, LFSB did not fix his immigration papers. He said the only friend he had was Hamilton Green.
This is just a letter. I leave it here and will write about Jim Jones in another letter. In Canada, while I was a doctoral student at York University I gave evidence at immigration hearings as an expert witness on Guyana for those seeking asylum. One such person was a Guyanese policeman who was at Jonestown. I interviewed him extensively. I hope to compile, in time for Guyana’s 50th birthday, over 1,000 pages I have written but which are scattered in various publications. I also have a suitcase of photographs and a neat personal archive. I attempted to write the political history of Guyana as an essay and read it to my third Form Class at Corentyne High School. I possess many original documents, unpublished pieces I have written, constantly “scrape” my prodigious memory and the memories of others regarding Guyanese politics. I am also very fortunate to have met and exchanged with dozens of Guyanese personalities and protagonists since 1953, including Jessie Burnham, Ulric Fingal, Brentol Blackman, George Bowman, Victor Downer, Balram Singh Rai, Thelma Reece, Sir David Rose, Ganraj Kumar, Winifred Gaskin, Brindley Benn, CML John, Hubert Jack, Jai Narine Singh Snr, Dr Hughley Hanoman, David de Caires, Dr Joshua Ramsammy, CV Nunes, Dr Maurice Odle, Miles Fitzpatrick, Dr Clive Thomas, Dr Walter Rodney, Dr Omawale, Eusi Kwayana, Vincent Teekah, Ranji Chandisingh, Reepu Daman Persaud, all of Guyana’s Presidents and many, many others, including my beloved leaders and cadres of the GRRS and the DLM-NWU between 1979-1996. I hope as many folks as possible will at least write their insights and/or perspectives of their story or of their ancestors’ from both the grassroots and the grass-tops, at Guyana’s 50th. I hope, fellow Guyanese, Aubrey Norton whom I have never met (my loss) enjoys campaigning in the upcoming elections and writing about his past and present experiences.
Yours faithfully,
Paul Nehru Tennassee