Political Violence in Guyana

I am taken aback. I am horrified. I simply cannot accept as factual that Dr. Rupert Roopnarine would make such statements. Even if Dr. Roopnarine and the producers of the documentary film WAR Stories and the reporters were accurate in their expressions - What’s to be gained by stating WPA was accumulating weapons? What are they really saying? What does this mean? Was WPA acquiring weapons for their personal protection or to launch a revolutionary effort in Guyana? I would have to agree that the members of the WPA needed protection from Forbes Burnham and his goons. It is known numerous persons attached to the WPA were victimized. Well the acquired weaponry did not prevent many of them from being executed. Their statements give the impression Forbes Burnham and his lackeys made preemptive strikes against threats to remove his illegal regime from the highest office of the land by removing the physical presence of Vincent Teekahsingh, Walter Rodney and numerous others from the society. Was it intended as a compromise with the PNC? Was the intent to whitewash and/or refurbish the image of Forbes Burnham? Was it an attempt to tarnish the image of Walter Rodney, Eusi Kwayana, Moses Bhagwan, Nigel Westmaas, Clive Thomas, Freddie Kissoon, David Hinds, Andaiye and Karen DeSouza, and others associated with the WPA? I cannot imagine how such statements are beneficial to the WPA and others who were opposed to the PNC regime. It was clearly understood. Rodney was a revolutionary thinker. Revolutions are bloody affairs. Also, the recorded history of societies informs us, that political affairs, in the human experience have always been bloody. This is especially true in developing nations. The bloodbath which occurred during the period February 1962 - December 1964 in the colony of British Guiana was as racial as it was political. The negative consequences of ethnic conflicts in the struggle for political power of opportunists and self minded theoreticians made lasting impression in the mind set of numerous youngsters of that era.
Fortunately, for myself, the people of New Amsterdam must have had their heads screwed on right. I do not recall noticing any signs of racial violence during that period in the capital of Berbice. Unfortunately, ethnic violence reigned supremely in the villages of my maternal ancestry. Golden Grove, Nabaclis, Victoria, Buxton and Friendship and other communities, on the East Sea Coast of Demerara, showed the aftermath of the bloody conflict which transpired in those political boundaries. There is no doubt that the adults were poisoned. The rhetoric emanating from the leaders of the PPP and PNC was a major factor. Those two political icons should have faced the judicial process in the colony for exacerbating and exploiting the ethnic tensions between two groups of nonwhites’ in the colony. Instead Guyanese seem hell-bent on making Jagan and Burnham national heroes. Many claim Jagan and Burnham were best Guyanese to have emerged out of the working class people of Guyana in the twentieth century. Those of us who ridicule Jagan or Burnham and/or both are considered racists by their supporters. It appears the vast majority of the Guyanese people seem to think every Guyanese ought to align themselves with either the PPP or the PNC. If not then they have choice expressions for those of us, who highlight the negativity of their beloved iconic figures.
I would love to think that our people don’t want to experience more events of ethnic slaughter. The citizens of Guyana need to draw lessons for the experiences of the 1960s and the recent times and simply refuse to do the biddings of the politicians. Violence is often the expression of oppressed people; however, in Guyana that fire, that militancy is misdirected. The beneficiaries are those who seek the highest offices in the land. The victims are always the members of the underprivileged working class people. I simply hope Guyanese are as intelligent people as I have always expected them to be – and has such distance themselves from unnecessary blood baths. What are the lessons to be drawn from prior events of political violence in Guyana?