Dear Editor,
During my youthful days in high school, I read Gandhi’s autobiography, “My Experiment with Truth”, a book I bought with the pocket money my late grandfather gave me, and it inspired me to follow closely the life of great leaders.
Thereafter, I would attend all meetings in Albion and nearby villages whenever the later Dr Cheddi Jagan was the featured speaker; and during my last days in high school, I became interested in the work of the late Dr Walter Rodney. The Mirror, Thunder and the Dayclean were part of the mass’s dietary supplements.
This trend continued long after I graduated from high school and after the demise of these two great sons of Guyana. But notably today, I have discerned two diametrically opposite trends: While the Party founded by Dr Jagan, the PPP, continued to grow and progress based on Jaganite principles, fighting for freedom and democracy, and producing world class leaders such as Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, Dr Irfaan Ali, and many others, both male and female; the WPA, founded by Dr Rodney, has gradually descended into an abyss of decadence, has strayed away from the Rodneyite fundamentals, and has become a party spewing and fostering racial division and disharmony while cooperating with, and endorsing all the wrongdoings of, the PNC, including the attempted rigging of the 2020 General Elections. This is against all the founding principles of the WPA and what it had stood for.
In 1974, when the WPA was founded, its core principle was racial unity, and its anti-racist rhetoric resonated far and wide, captivating the masses and simultaneously becoming an urgent threat to the PNC. Dr Rodney posed a menacing threat to Burnham, so much so that he had to be eliminated.
The murder of Dr Rodney and who was the architect of his cruel assassination is public knowledge, and the CoI into his death finally put to rest who the perpetrators were. But now the very people are in bed with the same people. In fact, the WPA has sold its soul to the same PNC which committed so many atrocities against the Guyanese people, including them, and continued to do so. Is this justified, when the PNC has not changed a bit?
The WPA has witnessed first-hand the openly corrupt ways of the previous Coalition Government from 2015 to 2020, its rapid descent to being another Burnham-like dictatorship, and its shameless and barefaced attempt to rig the 2020 Elections; yet, instead of condemnation, its Executive members, more so the Elder Tacuma Ogunseye, have sought to fan the flames of racial strife and disharmony, seemingly oblivious of the humongous gains made by the PPP/C Government to create a ONE GUYANA. One look at the socio-economic development taking place across Guyana would confirm this.
The mantra of the PNC, the AFC and the WPA: of “marginalisation and corruption”, speaks volume of their inability to make any tangible contribution to the development of Guyana.
What is the justification for Ogunseye’s call to arms against supposedly Indo-Guyanese? In his own words, he said, “I will support resistance, be it unarmed or armed, once it is a response by the poor and powerless of any racial group/community against state-sponsored killings and political oppression, irrespective of the government in power.” This statement attests to the fact that Mr Ogunseye has transported himself back in time, to when the PNC was in power. I think his mental state of mind should be called into question. Where are the ‘state-sponsored killings’ and the ‘political oppression’ under the PPP? It would seem that this brother wants to make himself the ‘sacrificial lamb’ to fulfill the devious agenda of the PNC, who want to get into government at all and any cost. He is playing the tune which Mr Aubrey Norton could waltz to.
The WPA should go back in time, when it was mostly Indo-Guyanese who were subjected to state-sponsored killings and political oppression. This was very much predominant in the Burnham era, and continued even when the PPP came into Government. It was the Indians who were targeted for murder, violence, sexual assaults and rape, and banditry in broad daylight under the guise of “peaceful protests”. I did not hear WPA Executive Mr Ogunseye speak against these atrocities against Indians whenever the PPP is in power. Did he not pontificate that he would support his call for armed or unarmed resistance in response to any racial group being subjected to such treatment? Yet, every time the PNC stage a “peaceful protest”, it is the Indians who are targeted, and Ogunseye and his WPA comrades remained mum.
It is unfortunate that the WPA has journeyed so far as to make itself a mockery of the ideals of Dr Rodney. Instead of condemning the statement by Ogunseye, who invoked members of the armed forces to “turn those guns in the right direction”, the WPA endorsed it. The WPA is now doing the real killing and performing the final rites for Dr Walter Rodney. But these traitors to the cause of Dr Rodney have now brought destruction only to themselves, it is they who are performing their own final rites. The AFC already performed theirs.
Third parties and so-called ‘Third Forces’ such as the UF, the WPA and the AFC have done nothing for the Guyanese people, except forming alliances with the PNC to bring destruction, racial division, and mayhem to this great country.
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
