I will picket UG against Dr. Alissa Trotz

Sep 12, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – I am getting on in age but I have not hung up my picketing gloves. I will ask pro-democracy Guyanese to join me in the formation of a picketing group to demonstrate against Dr. Alissa Trotz being awarded the Walter Rodney Chair at UG.

It would be an embarrassment to the name of Walter Rodney and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for justice, rights and liberties in Guyana the past 200 hundred years.
My opinion is Dr. Trotz has not used her academic pursuits and social activism to advance the cause of freedom in Guyana. On the contrary, she has not supported the pro-democracy forces in this country since March 2020.

Dr. Trotz is one of the leading figures in a group named ‘Overseas Friends of the WPA’. This is a group dedicated to saving the defunct name of the WPA. Please note I did not say the WPA because there is no WPA. I said “name.”

The WPA has destroyed its name in the Caribbean and beyond. No scholar that admires Walter Rodney can still have any appreciation for those who are alive today that were once the revolutionary comrades of Rodney when one looks at what those people have transform themselves into.

I saw a pamphlet circulating about a symposium on the emerging apartheid state in Guyana and Professor Clive Thomas’s face is on it and he is listed as one of the speakers. Can Prof. Thomas seriously argue a case for a nascent apartheid system in Guyana? Is he prepared to back up his polemical stance with hard facts and an incisive statistical outlay?

I think Dr. Trotz has a right to apply for the Rodney Chair at UG. I have a right to offer my opinion as to her suitability. Each day in this country people offer their opinions on the eligibility and ineligibility of others to hold certain offices. I am saying boldly here, I don’t believe Ms. Trotz qualifies.

Here is my reason. The chair is in the history department and its essential requirement is for scholarly accomplishments in the field that Rodney excelled in – history. It is a downgrading of the prestigious position to have someone occupy it who is not a historian. The last person who held the position was Professor Kimani Nehusi, a published historian.

Nothing can be more vulgar to a have a chair in international relations in the name of Henry Kissinger and it is awarded to an anthropologist. Kissinger wrote dozens of books analysing international affairs. The occupier must be able to teach students about global affairs and undertake research in international affairs.

I would hate to see UG open the Yesu Persaud Chair in business management and the title is awarded to a historian. I am saying with pellucid ferocity, the Walter Rodney Chair in History must be assigned, after examination of the applicants’ academic record of competence in publications in history to a historian.

Ms. Trotz’s main field is women studies and that is where her publications lie. If UG cannot locate a well-established historian, then the nearest field of study would be political sociology or comparative political studies. My mind lights on Professor Percy Hintzen whom I believe remain the most competent sociologist Guyana has produced. If he hasn’t applied, I would urge him to.
I do not think the applicant for the Walter Rodney Chair should be judged on the basis of his/her politics. It is academic work and research that are required. But because Rodney used his scholarship for the liberation of the oppressed, it would be uplifting if the successful candidate has some background in social activism that incorporates elements of liberation politics.

In this respect, I am afraid I am not a fan of Dr. Trotz. I feel as a dyed-in-wool WPA embracer, Ms. Trotz is not endowed with the qualities of liberation politics. Others may disagree and if and when they do I would like to see a factual enumeration.

Here I am offering before-hand, my rebuttal. The ruling APNU+AFC lost a no-confidence motion (NCM) in December 2018. From that time to the March 2020 election, Ms. Trotz did not devote one article in her weekly column titled “In The Diaspora”, to the NCM and the absurdity of 34 is a majority of 65.

She did not compose even one column during the five months of election rigging to an exposure of the attempted fraud. I am letting Dr. Trotz know that I host a popular programme on social media titled: The Gildarie-Freddie Kissoon Show. If she is awarded the chair, I will constantly address the wrongness of that decision on my show.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)