Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 16, 2014 Letters
DEAR EDITOR,
I read Mr. Freddie Kissoon article captioned, “Teardrops cascade on dead dreams: Mrs. Patricia Rodney stumbles”; a very mocking caption. I have been meaning for some time now to address what I have seen in the Guyana media as the most arsine presumptions from critics of the commission of inquiry into Dr. Walter Rodney’s death.
Let me hasten to say that I have the utmost respect for Mr. Freddie Kissoon and his continued struggle for a just, fair and equitable Guyanese society. I believe if there is a change in government, Mr. Kissoon should be given Guyana’s highest award in recognition for his bravery and courage. Nonetheless, one does not always have to agree with someone he or she holds in high regard. In this case, I vehemently disagree with Mr. Kissoon’s analysis concerning Dr. Patricia Rodney’s quest for the revelation of the truth about her husband’s death.
While I may not be a trained historian like Mr. Kissoon, My endeavour in the field of academia, taught me the value of deductive reasoning, especially dealing with methods of arriving at conclusions. Dr. Patricia Rodney (Mr. Kissoon ought to know that Patricia is a Ph.D.) and her children have suffered tremendously from the murder of her husband and their father.
No time passed can erase that sense of loss. It is very unfair and insensitive for anyone to seek to expect the necessity for political calculation in her quest for the truth about her husband’s death. In this regard, she has no obligation to consider the current political implications, nor is she bound by political motives. Her main concern and obligation is for the truth, especially given the circumstances that justice cannot be administered.
This commission of inquiry into the death of Dr. Walter Rodney has been long overdue. It’s been 34 years since the assassination of Dr. Rodney, one of the most important academics and thinkers of the 21st century, and one of Guyana’s most important martyrs in the struggle for a just society. Guyana has an obligation for moral reasons to seek the truth into his death. I have no doubt that it is this desire that continues to push Dr. Patricia Rodney in her quest, in addition to the need to vindicate her husband for the sake of their children from the allegations about him that are peddled in the society. Political analysts and historians can derive meaning and motive regarding major events and their outcomes, but it is also expected that analysts and historians consider the human factor in such analysis.
One may have concerns with regard to the reason why the PPP has assembled this inquiry thirty-four years after Dr. Rodney’s death. It is a fair concern. It is also fair to question the motives. My thinking is that because of the polarized nature of politics in Guyana, and its racialized outfit, the motives of the PPP would’ve been questioned anytime during PPP’s rule, once it would’ve assembled this commission of inquiry, The PNC never had an interest in assembling such a commission. It has in the past had many opportunities to do so, but has blocked any meaningful call for an inquiry. As time passed, and as institutions and memories become broken and aged, we expect some diminishing of the evidence concerning events surrounding Rodney’s death. Yet this inquiry is warranted.
What I find puzzling is that, in the eyes of the critics, the PPP’s motives for an inquiry have taken precedence over the competency of the commissioners to conduct a proper and fair inquiry I checked, and, not to my surprise, I found the jurists on the commission to be eminent and competent individuals. All the commissioners in the commission of Inquiry, comprising Sir Richard Cheltenham, K.A., Q.C, Ph.D., as Chairman, Mrs. Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, Q.C. and Mr. Seenath Jairam, S.C, have tremendous experiences in legal jurisprudence.
Sir Richard is a prominent and highly respected Caribbean Jurist who has practiced in most jurisdictions of the Eastern Caribbean as well as before the Privy Council in the UK. He is an acknowledged specialist in the area of Commissions of Inquiry, a distinguished individual, who has served in various ministerial capacities in various Barbados governments. Mrs. Brown is the chair of the council of legal education and teaches at the Norman Manley Law School at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus. It is said of her by her peers that she is fantastic at criminal and civil law, “diligent, astute and skilled”. As a woman she has charted many courses in the field of criminal justice. Mr. Seenath Jairam is a former judge of the High Court in Trinidad, and he has served as a Commissioner on the Law Reform Commission, in addition to teaching at the Hugh Wooding Law School.
So these are very competent commissioners and there is no reason to suspect lack of integrity and professional care or inability to offer due diligence to the evidence offered. Therefore, I do not know why analysts would think that the PPP government would have undue influence over these experts in the conduct of the inquiry or could influence the outcome. The recognizable difficulty is the reliability of some evidence. Notwithstanding, what has been revealed so far from these inquiries have been jarring. At the end of such an inquiry, these eminent individuals will tell us what is their conclusion, but regardless, this inquiry, for historical and moral reasons, was warranted.
Dr. Patricia Rodney cannot stumble in wanting the truth revealed in her husband’s death. Many including Mr. Kissoon have suspected the death to be an assassination. I rather suspect that Mrs. Rodney is not concerned about the politics in Guyana, or what political motives are preconceived, nor is she concerned about the political nature of the PPP regime vs. the Burnhamite PNC.
The PPP is not conducting these inquiries. Various interests are adequately represented. So any deduction about political motive in my opinion is irrelevant. Furthermore, this is foremost a wife and mother who 34 years ago had to bury her husband in extremely questionable and suspicious circumstances. She is someone who has witnessed over the years unfounded motives and complicity being assigned to him in death, when she knew the truth. Our Brother Freddie Kissoon has stumbled.
Dennis Wiggins
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
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