Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 25, 2017 Letters
Dear Editor,
I left Guyana in the eighties after my parents decided to migrate to the US. Before then I was in the YSM, the youth arm of the PNC. At the time also John Williams and I were good friends. We graduated from teaching college together and we joined the YSM together. It was on my initiative that John decided to switch allegiance from the PNC to the WPA.
I would say there were three reasons why I made the move and brought John along with me. The first was my father. This is a long story. My father was a sergeant in the army. He was not at all inclined towards politics. But the fate of my mother’s brother at the bauxite company changed all that. My mother was from a single parent background. Her brother took care of her because my grandmother took ill and died when my mom was still at school.
My uncle was the one who talked politics all the time. It was a terrible family moment when my uncle was dismissed along with dozens of stalwarts in one swoop during an upheaval at the bauxite company. My mother never forgave Prime Minister, Forbes Burnham for what happened to a man that was both a father and a brother to her. I would say that radicalized my mother and her husband.
I remember army people coming to our home and bad-mouthing the Prime Minister. My dad’s friends from the army were all anti-government. What assisted that development at the time was the presence of Walter Rodney. I believe if the incident in the bauxite industry had not occurred with my uncle, my mom, her brother and I would still have chosen Walter Rodney over Burnham. A person had to live in the moment of the Rodney marches to understand the powerful charisma of Walter Rodney.
The third reason was Freddie Kissoon. I met Freddie through John. He struck me as a different East Indian from all the Indians I knew and I hadn’t a close friend who was Indian. At training college I did not develop anything close to a friendship with any Indian. There was something different about Freddie Kissoon. I saw in him an Indian that really didn’t care about race and the fact that he was in the WPA made it even better. I knew one day, he would make a name for himself. As I see Freddie now, I think he is the logical inheritor of the legacy of Walter Rodney. I keep abreast of politics from Brooklyn and I was so angry at the things I saw happening to Freddie. For me after Walter Rodney, I would say he is my second hero.
I have been reading of the stalemate between the WPA and the PNC leadership and I wonder what my dad would have made of it. He died in 2009 before the merger of the PNC and WPA into APNU and knowing him and how he felt about President Burnham, I doubt he would have supported the merger. My father thought that Burnham was a great nationalist but should never have gone in the direction of killing Walter Rodney.
The Rodney murder convinced my dad that Guyana would collapse and it was time to leave. He grabbed the opportunity to take his family with him, and I think we are better people for that. I have a few friends who put a lot of faith in the Granger government but the recent split with the WPA has brought back terrible memories, especially of my friend John Williams. When he died of illness, I felt I was to be blamed. I encouraged John to leave the YSM and go with the WPA but I never received even a scratch while John was badly beaten by PNC thugs on the Merriman’s Mall.
I sometimes wonder what Guyana would have been like had Rodney remained alive. I never sought contact with people I knew in the WPA after I left Guyana. I do know a few folks here who told me that they have seen and talked with Freddie while visiting Guyana from time to time. I hope Guyana is kind to people like Freddie Kissoon and those that remain in the WPA.
I read a lot of criticism of the WPA by Freddie and I thought it would have been better if he had stayed with the WPA and become part of the leadership of the WPA. My mother and father were big admirers of the WPA. Walter Rodney was their hero. I am moving on in age and though I follow what has been taking place in my country of birth, I doubt I would ever see Guyana again as I have no plans to travel in the near future. My two daughters are married to Americans who have no interest in seeing the land of their father-in-law or mother-in-law. I never heard them speak of Guyana. Guyana is the country that gave birth to two wonderful people – my parents and I wish it well but the WPA/PNC split is bringing back memories I could do without. If Freddie Kissoon is reading this, I hope he sticks true to what Walter Rodney believed in.
Kevin Thomas
Brooklyn, New York, USA
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
Mar 28, 2024
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