Dear Editor,
In October 2014, the media released a private conversation in which the current Attorney-General Anil Nandlall is heard making threats against the Kaieteur News for critical coverage, discussing how to get the sexual services of a young woman for a relative and admitting to taking government money for private purposes. Near the end of the call, Mr Nandlall, an alumnus of Queen’s College, states: “Is Queen’s College people does run this country, you nah realize that?”
Queen’s College, seen by so many for so long as one of the top schools in Guyana, can stand for different traditions. One is the reproduction of the status quo, the politics of exclusion, of climbing the ladder and kicking it away when you get to the top. It’s about clinging on to your power and your privilege, no matter what the cost, no matter what the price. The most recent and vulgar example of this part of the Queen’s College heritage is represented by these actions of Anil Nandlall, the Queen’s College graduate who occupies the office of the Attorney-General.
There is another tradition that has also always been part of the Queen’s College heritage. It is about saying no to abuse. It has to do with speaking back to power. It has to do with taking a stand whatever the cost. It has to do with breaking the silence despite the fear and because of the fear. This tradition was for example represented in the hope that resided in two alumni (Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan), when in 1953 Guyana took the world by storm, before things fell apart, before our beloved country fell into a deep anti-democratic slumber that started close to a half century ago and from which we have still not awoken. It is represented by Walter Rodney. It is represented most recently by Courtney Crum-Ewing, a QC alumnus of the same generation as Mr Nandlall, who tragically, heart sickeningly, was gunned down earlier this week while out calling people in his community to vote in May.
When Mr Nandlall, who occupies the office of the Attorney-General, says “Is QC people does run this country,” let us understand that the tradition which he represents feeds off little more than contempt for Guyanese other than a select few.
I ask as a Guyanese woman, which tradition will we stand for?
To my fellow Queen’s College alumni, when Anil Nandlall (who has taken the disgrace of public office to a record level) says that Queen’s College people run things, does he speak for you? And if not, what has our silence meant so far, and what is the work to be done?
My deepest condolences to the family and friends of Courtney Crum-Ewing. We must all suffer this unbearable loss with you.
Yours faithfully,
Alissa Trotz
