Dear Editor,
I said it before and I’ll say it once more: like ‘my bones and my flute’ the ghost of Walter Rodney will continue to haunt this land; the guilty ones will have no rest until the truth of this matter and nothing but the truth, is respectfully and magnanimously embraced. With all the pomp and red carpets being prepared for this year Independence Jubilee how wonderfully reassuring it would have been having this Rodney episode wrapped and presented to the nation, removing the dark clouds and moving on. But lo! from all indications we seem set to continue the charade marching around and around, lost in a masquerade.
What can one say about Tacuma Ogunseye’s letter on the President’s pronouncement on the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry report. That letter represents words of wisdom; it is straight-up, forthright, frank, bold, honest, objective and respectable. If this is not political maturity, then tell me what is. This to my mind is the kind of thinking that is needed at this time to help us build a nation – a people moving forward with a common destiny.
You know life can have swings, dips, twists and turns. Sometimes a thing that you fear like the plague and resolved to stay light years away from, as fate would have it comes around back like a boomerang to confront you, and there is nothing that you can do about it except to face it.
Now the President for his part has said before that he was in Yugoslavia at the time of Walter Rodney’s death. Good for him. But are we not stepping into a new dawn? If so, then let’s walk bravely, head and shoulders held high towards a new horizon. As children we were taught to “Speak the truth and speak it ever, cause it what it will/He who hides the wrongs he did does the wrong things still”. And these are the values we implant in our children and admonish them to beware of, but often times by our actions it appears as if they are cast aside when we become adults.
The President hitherto has won himself all sorts of accolades, praise and respect, and moreso within the Christian community he is admired. He is a disciplined and upright man who has stayed his course – a “This is the day that the Lord has made” man; a real man of God who quotes scriptures. Fine, thus it behoves him to demonstrate to us and the world that he is truly one of Guyana’s finest leaders. Look how many years have gone by; a nation bleeds, so isn’t it time for closure? For how long more are we going to allow this national blight to drag on? The President should not allow them to cause him to stumble and fall on this Walter Rodney CoI. Sure, the inquiry has made a hefty dent in our national treasury, an enormous sum – it could have built 10 schools says the President – so then let it not be seen a total waste, remember we are supposed to be starting anew. The President ought to be losing sleep over this ugly state of affairs, thus I fully endorse what Donald Rodney has written in the Stabroek News of March 3rd: “President Granger should be leading the way on truth and reconciliation for the benefit of Guyana as a whole, instead of appearing to be squandering opportunities to do so”.
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
