Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 11, 2018 Letters
I will never let Tacuma Ogunseye make accusations against me without a response. I will reply to anything that he insinuates about me because I consider him to be one of the most offensive, dangerous, and racist political activists this country has ever produced.
In a recent exchange with Henry Jeffrey, he made two accusations; I do not accept differing opinion and that I claim the WPA is dead. I will come to those in another letter but for now, a few comments on this man’s political culture.
If you go through the list of parties that produced activists that have achieved some national publicity over the past fifty years, from small outfits to major organizations, none has birthed someone so driven by race, crass political mentality and opportunism as Ogunseye. Only in Guyana, can a character like Ogunseye achieve a history of political infamy and not be ostracized. I refer specifically to his years of involvement in Buxton during the “violent troubles” there.
His support for the gunmen was the subject of comments from major newspapers and important actors in Guyana from 2002 when the violently racist mayhem began in Buxton. From then to now, none of his present and former colleagues and acolytes in the WPA have ever uttered even a word, just one word of condemnation.
The exception is Eusi Kwayana and he chose not to voice his disagreement in a public letter. His stance took the following words in his short book, “The Morning After” (2005). “Tacuma Ogunseye whom I have called Brother Tacuma for some thirty years, has described the story of Buxton as a liberation struggle. At no time in our long association have I disagreed more with him…I have attacked what he now supports or justifies.”
It is unbelievable that not one person who once belonged to the WPA and those still around and were around at the time when Ogunseye was involved in conspiratorial activities in Buxton has ever condemned him. Long after the Buxton mayhem, Ogunseye was banned from speaking on behalf of ACDA when he was chastised by that organization for a hate speech that he gave at an ACDA public meeting in BV.
Days after his ostracization by ACDA, he was part of a radio panel with Christopher Ram hosted by Denis Chabrol on Demerara Waves radio. When asked to expand on his BV speech in which he called on Black people to remove the PPP government, he was asked why he thinks the police force would not use force on armed insurrectionists when the police did use force against the Buxton gunmen.
His hypocritical and immoral reply was that the police did use counter-violence in Buxton because that was a criminal enterprise but the police would not do that to political agitators. This man who was involved in Buxton activities with murderously racist gunmen he exalted as freedom fighters (see Kwayana’s condemnation above), turned around and called them criminals.
This is the same gentleman that supporters who are former and current WPA cadres continue to embrace.
Let me offer one more example of how unacceptable this man is in Guyanese politics and should be shunned by this country. In a published letter in this newspaper of April 11, 2018 under the heading, “Roopnaraine will remain a member of the WPA for as long as he chooses to do so,” Ogunseye wrote; “Let me reiterate for the benefit of Freddie Kissoon and for whoever else needs this reassurance, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine is, and will remain a member of the WPA, for as long as he chooses to do so. End of matter.”
I replied to that boldness in a Stabroek News letter of April 13, 2018 in which I exposed the nasty political culture of this gentleman, a culture that has virtually destroyed this country.
Here is the same Ogunsweye on the same Roopnaraine in an e-mail to me, which I reproduced. “Hello Freddie, I just read it and I recalled doing so when it was published. I too was disappointed with the book and was expecting something more political. The observations you made of his politics are correct.
“I remember persons who knew the “Brother” told us that we will later have problems with the comrade ‒ their point was that his political orientation was not Guyanese or Caribbean but European. He came from the European lift (sic) culturally. I had and still have problems with the Brother politics and his political culture, but the WPA, before Walter (sic) return, and during his activism and after had always seen the anti-dictatorial struggle as a multi-class struggle ‒ this explains our coexistence and objectively was Indian and one of the better element of the elite. There is something I would not say at this time. Tacuma.”
Sincerely,
Frederick Kissoon
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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