OPINION: The truth is well known Mr. Nigel Hughes

Last Updated on Sunday, 18 February 2024, 13:09 by Denis Chabrol

By Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus

Audacity is the signature element of Nigel Hughes’ call for a “…truth and reconciliation of atrocities that had been committed over the decades” (Demerara Waves, 2/17/2024). Mr. Hughes should be reminded upfront that we had a truth commission in the form of the Commission of Inquiry on the Death of Walter Rodney. The findings of the Commission were clear and unambiguous. Rodney, and other activists against the PNC dictatorship were assassinated. Hughes will also know that instead of reconciliation, the APNU-AFC, and concomitantly the PNC, did the exact opposite of attempts at reconciliation. To start with, President Granger bludgeoned the Report upon receiving it. He had not read a single sentence but still pronounced it dead on arrival. That is ‘reconciliation’ PNC style. Do you want more of that, Mr. Hughes?

Readers who are too young to recall the assassination should know that Walter was murdered by a remote-controlled explosive device hidden in a walkie-talkie sold to him by an operative of the PNC dictatorship. The bomb exploded at 8 P.M on June 13, 1980, near to the Georgetown prison. The diabolical callousness of the regime came through in full force the next morning when thousands of pamphlets celebrating the assassination were distributed around Georgetown, and surrounding PNC strongholds. The cultural taskforce in the regime went to work and produced this eschatological requiem:

Hickory Dickory, Doe
Appointment at 8 o’clock
We wouldn’t need no bail
And this walkie-talkie start talk!
Rockabye Rodney now lives in the past
Dispatched to his master so quick and fast

That’s right, Mr. Hughes! The order of business was to assassinate, then mock one of the finest men this country has ever produced. Are you sure you want another investigation? What more do you want to know?

Mr. Hughes no doubt already knows that Rodney was only one of the brave souls who met an untimely death at the hands of the regime. Exactly one year before, for instance, (July 14, 1979) Father Bernard Darke, a Jesuit priest and anti-dictatorship activist was savagely beaten to death by thugs associated with the dictatorship. Sir, do you really want an investigation into the murderous activities of that state-sponsored thug who went by the name Rabbi Washington?

The APNU-AFC people love to talk about race. Their strategy is to exploit the modern history of racial oppression of African Americans. They work ridiculously hard to link the Guyanese experience to that of African Americans without ever stating that Afro-Guyanese have been at the helm of political power for more years since independence compared to the entire history of Black folks in America. That’s right, the PNC and APNU have held state power longer than any political party in Guyana. During the Ramotar presidency the APNU-AFC controlled the National Assembly, and therefore, all government spending.

Hughes wants Guyana to start from what he calls “ground zero.” That has a kind of cosmopolitan ring, the sexy language of the new Renaissance Man of the Global South. A kind of ‘wine & cheese’ articulation whilst having a chat with the anti-oil & gas lobby today, or back in the early days in Houston when the primary business was chasing the oil and gas people for contracts to set up the infrastructure of the same oil & gas industry in Guyana. The latter period was 2015-2020. Do you remember where you were?

Allow me to be blunt. You can’t start from ground zero by issuing that call from the Burnham Foundation platform. That smacks of historical indecency and is a particularly poignant reminder that some people will never learn. For three decades the PNC rigged every election and referendum in this country. No truth and reconciliation needed for that. But worse than that Mr. Hughes, is the fact that things got worse even though you and others in the AFC and the APNU have had time to reflect on our historical development.

You want constitutional governance? Well, what the heck was 33 is not a majority over 32. Which smart lawyer developed that warped idea through which the constitution of this country was shelved by the ruling APNU-AFC by refusing to call an election within three months of a no-confidence vote. I know where you stand on this issue. No investigation necessary.

Then came 2020 and the APNU-AFC went on a shameless four-month rigging expedition. Words fail me here, so let me just ask. Where were you Sir? And what if we disaggregate who did what in the rigging effort, name by name, blow by blow? Who bought the bed sheet? Who procured the Vaseline? Who controlled the entrance and exit at Ashmin’s? And whilst we are at it, why don’t we disaggregate the scholarships distributed to members of parliament and their families during the APNU-AFC’s Cinco Años?

We do not need a “massive overhaul” to accelerate human development in Guyana. What we need is for the APNU-AFC and their friends to solemnly promise that they will not rig elections in the future. That they will not racialize everything existing. That they will not forget their own past. And when all of that is done, promise that you will behave like real patriots by assuming the role of a responsible opposition.

In closing, be reminded that we also had a COI on the 2020 elections. Please read it and let us know when the APNU-AFC will respect the findings.

Dr. Randy Persaud is an Adviser on International Affairs at the Office of the President