PEEPING TOM
Burnham murdered Rodney
Posted May 20th. 2005
By this time you would have recognised that Peeping Tom is dedicating some of his columns this week to raising the memory of the assassination of Walter Rodney. The following article appeared on October 20 last in these pages.
Everyone has things that one admires about others. Not all of us therefore can share the same heroes. Even ACDA has a right to decide whom it considers the ultimate African hero of Guyana. But it does not have a right to foist its choice upon others by revising history through falsehood.
Yesterday, there was a beautiful letter written by Dr. David Hinds about a recent ACDA article on the death of Dr. Walter Rodney. Hinds's letter is important for more than one reason. He has brutally exposed the mischief that was afoot in that article.
According to Hinds there are those who want to reintroduce Burnham as the ultimate African Guyanese hero. But in order to do so they have to first exonerate Burnham of Rodney's murder. Secondly, Hinds accuses the ACDA article of shamelessly using Rodney to cuss out the PPP.
I said there is more than one reason why this letter from Hinds is important. The most important is that when you read his letter what comes across is not just the analysis of the ACDA article. What leaps from the script is the integrity of the writer.
I have my differences with Hinds. I certainly feel that his dismissal of federalism as a possible solution to ethnic insecurity is not tenable. I also am still to find “Captain Scamp” so that I can ask him or her, who exactly are the masterminds that turned Buxton into a wasteland.
As I recall, it was Eusi Kwayana who had suggested that we seek out the identity of the masterminds and those politicians who went into Buxton and shared out guns. My position has always been the same; if you say something you should be able to back it up, and I am disappointed that for all the analysis about masterminds and politicians and outsiders who went into Buxton, none of those who used the terms to describe the events in that village has been willing to say who are these persons.
Hinds, in his letter, has continued to demonstrate his political integrity, and here is someone that you would have thought the post-1992 PPP would have wanted to have within its government. Hinds would be an asset to any government in Guyana, but I think that he will find it more than a trifle uncomfortable sitting with those who wield power today.
Of course, the PPP cannot even contemplate such a thing as bringing someone like Hinds into its ranks. But I would like in the future, despite my differences with him, to see someone like Dr. David Hinds in a future government. Personally, I feel that some of those who were complicit in the murder of Rodney have a better chance of becoming part of the present government than Hinds has of joining the ranks of the present regime.
People are free, as I said, to choose Burnham as their hero. For me he will always be a tyrant and I do not need to misrepresent history to make out a strong case against the man they called Forbes.
The younger generation does not know Burnham. They were not around when he wielded an iron grip on this country. They were not around when he murdered Walter Rodney.
The younger generation does not know Walter Rodney and what he stood for and how he galvanized this country in the most exciting way over a short period of a few years. They were not there when this nation buried him in the largest funeral ever seen in the history of Guyana. They were not there when Africans and Indians walked hand-in-hand at his funeral. They were not there when the international community condemned his murder. They were not there when countries such as Grenada and Cuba declared days of national mourning for a man who never held political power in this country.
Walter Rodney was only thirty-eight years when he was murdered. Yet, as Dr. Clive Thomas said, he had accomplished so much in his abbreviated life. Walter Rodney was a unique individual. He was very special and those who murdered such an outstanding son of the soil deserve to rot in hell.
Those Guyanese who were fortunate to have witnessed Rodney's mesmerizing effect on crowds at political rallies, those who were around to see how he turned Burnham into a despised and forlorn figure, will cherish those memories because they know that Guyana has never produced a politician since, who has had that effect on Guyanese of all races.
I laugh today when I see PPP leaders preaching about how the PPP struggled to remove Burnham. The only real chance the Guyanese people had of uniting to end the Burnham regime was when Walter Rodney was around. When Rodney died, all hope of getting rid of the tyrant evaporated. Burnham knew he was secure. It was Rodney and the WPA who roasted Burnham's balls.
And this is why good people cannot be silent when they see attempts to rewrite the history of this country by those who would try to exculpate Burnham from his murderous deeds. The assassination of Walter Rodney will always be the thorn in the side of those who wish to elevate Forbes Burnham to a standing he does not deserve.
The distance between old friends
The following was written one year ago. As we near the twenty-fifth anniversary of the murder of the great Walter Rodney, Peeping Tom reflects on a tale of ingratitude and historical amnesia.
History works in mysterious ways. I recall the time when the PPP and the WPA were united in their opposition to the PNC dictatorship. I recall the days when the two walked hand in hand as brothers and sisters in struggle.
In that struggle, the WPA paid the higher price, losing activists to state-sponsored death squads. Then on June 13, 1980, the WPA paid the supreme sacrifice: the murder of its co-leader Walter Rodney at the hands of a PNC agent.
Today, the PPP is in power. The foundation for the PPP's removal of the PNC from office in 1992 was paid for in great measure by the sweat, blood and tears of the WPA. Today, when I see some of the people that occupy positions of power and influence in government, I have to ask where were some of them when the body blows were being absorbed by the true freedom fighters of Guyana .
Mrs. Janet Jagan, a leader within the PPP and a former President of Guyana, has done a lot of walking in her life. In 1948, she walked from Georgetown to Enmore in the funeral procession for the sugar workers gunned down by colonial police. Then in 1980, she walked from Buxton to Georgetown in the funeral procession of Rodney.
Since 1992, her party has, however, been putting space between itself and its former allies in the struggle against the PNC. I wonder how she feels today to see the distance that has come between her party and the once formidable WPA who paid the price for the rewards that her party is presently enjoying.
I wonder how she feels that not one of the great WPA freedom fighters of those days is part of any inclusive process within her administration. In fact, the PPP by its actions hardly considers the WPA worthy of being part of any constructive engagement process. I wonder how Mrs. Jagan feels today when she sees courageous figures of the WPA speaking on platforms with the “former enemy” and being highly critical of the PPP government.
I wonder how she feels when persons like Dr. David Hinds and Dr. Rupert Roopnarine have to seek employment outside of Guyana . I wonder how she feels when she sees certain PPP leaders consorting with some of the persons who helped to cover up the death of Dr. Walter Rodney.
History moves in mysterious ways. There used to be a time when the PPP and WPA seemed inseparable. Today the WPA is marching with the PNCR, and individuals like Dr. Clive Thomas, who was once part of the coalition of forces that protested against the devastating economic policies of the PNC, can claim that the PPP is following the economic polices of the former PNC administration. Yes, the same Thomas who shared so many platforms with PPP leaders! Today he appears on the PNC platform. History has come full circle.
What explanation can be had for former allies moving so far apart in so short a time? One explanation has to be the hogging of power by the hawks within the PPP. And while blame must also reside with the WPA, surely it was the PPP which was required to show more magnanimity and generosity to its former allies.
The late Tim Hector saw the failure of the PPP to unite with the WPA as one the greatest misdeeds of Dr. Cheddi Jagan. In a tribute to the late president he wrote, “But there was one great failure. Jagan failed to unite the PPP with Walter Rodney's WPA. He missed the only opportunity since 1964 to re-unite the races, Indian and African, after the CIA induced tumult of race rioting in 1963-64.
“In consequence his party, the PPP, did not renew itself, after its entire front ranks had deserted to Burnham in the years of vileness. To be fair, my friends, colleagues, brothers and sisters in the WPA no doubt made differences into irreconcilables. An historic opportunity was missed. Ah! The pity of it.”
The PNCR is no reformed party. The PNC has never admitted to its complicity in the murder of Rodney. It has failed to publicly admit to the rigging of elections and all the other terrible things it did while in office. So it cannot be that the WPA has buried the hatchet and seen the PNCR in better light.
The son of Walter Rodney had to go on a fast outside of the Ministry of Legal Affairs to force the PPP to take action to have the killer of his father brought back to face trial. That process is not going anywhere because the bosses of Gregory Smith knew what they were doing when they sent him to French Guiana .
Smith, who was tracked down with the help of the Sandanista Government in Nicaragua , cannot be deported to Guyana so long as the death penalty is still on our books. In was even rumoured that Smith, the man who gave Rodney the device which subsequently exploded, has himself passed to the great beyond, escaping the clutches of justice for his murderous participation in the death of Walter Rodney.
The file is not yet closed on the life of this great son of Guyana , Dr. Walter Rodney. There is still an opportunity for those within the PNC and the army who know about the circumstances of Rodney's and his associates deaths, who know about the death squads that the PNC put together to destroy the WPA, to come forward and say what they know. At this time, when we are seeking to get to the truth about phantom killings in the present era, let us spare a thought for the numerous victims of state-sponsored death squads which took the lives of political opponents of the PNC Government.
Let us recall the death squad bosses, who ordered the death of the most brilliant mind ever to emerge from the region.
Let us recall, today, the contribution of Dr. Walter Rodney to the freedoms we now enjoy and in so doing let us examine the distance that has come between former friends.
Before he ordered the murder of Walter Rodney, Forbes Burnham had spelt out clearly his intentions. In a speech at the Square of the Revolution, following a Congress of his party, Forbes Burnham announced that his party's steel was sharper. He urged the leaders of the Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) to make their wills.
The assassination of Walter Rodney at the hands of an agent of the local military, was not an isolated killing. It followed closely on the heels of the murder of two WPA activists, the arrest and jailing of another, and treason charges against some persons believed to have been associated with the party.
Walter Rodney was murdered. It is believed that Burnham got help to do the job. I would not be surprised if the Central Intelligence Agency supplied the instrument that did the job. But, the CIA could not have acted independently in penetrating the military.
The CIA had long been in league with the PNC and Burnham. The CIA never acted alone when it came to Guyana . The PNC was its bosom buddy.
It was the CIA-supported destabilization that brought the PNC to power in 1964. Following the fall of Somoza, the dethroning of the Shah of Iran and the departure of Eric Gairy from Grenada in the late seventies, the CIA may have had cause to worry that its boy, Burnham may have been under threat.
The CIA may have been involved in supplying the weapon, but what needs to be asked is, who put in the order and who may have flown to the United States just before Rodney's death to seal the deal? Whatever the role of external agencies, it does not wash away Rodney's blood from the hands of Forbes Burnham.
The killer of Rodney was an agent of the government. He was flown from the city to an interior location in a GDF helicopter, and later spirited out of the country.
He was well protected. In so far as the escape of Gregory Smith is concerned, he was helped by the GDF. So there is no doubt about the role of the local military in the death of Walter Rodney.
I am appealing again to those who had knowledge about what went on, and on whose orders Gregory Smith was flown out of Guyana , the need to come forward and state what they know.
I am appealing to those who knew the person that flew Gregory Smith to the interior location, to come forward and provide the information.
The PPP never bothered, when they got into office in 1992, to dig deep into army intelligence records to see whether any traces of information remain about Gregory Smith.
I recall that at the time of Rodney's killing, a senior official of the Guyana Defense Force, who is now close to the government, said that Gregory Smith was not a member of the army.
However, the army identity number of the now-deceased Gregory Smith was later revealed in the press. So was he honorably discharged, or is he considered an absconder?
I am deeply troubled that, for all the years that Gregory was alive and working in French Guiana, no journalist in Guyana ventured into that country to interview this man who was at the center of the assassination of Walter Rodney.
I know what he would have told them. He would have given them the same cock and bull story that he gave the now editor of the Chronicle, whom I believe is one of the few persons to have spoken to Smith.
Smith needed to be tormented by the media to force him to speak the truth about his involvement in the murder of Rodney.
Smith needed to be asked who his superiors were within the military that were part of this dastardly plot to end the life of the co-leader of the Working People's Alliance . Smith needed to be asked who flew the helicopter that shipped him out of the city. Smith had much to say. Today he is dead, and dead men tell no tales.
The passing of Gregory Smith should not mean the closing of the file on Rodney. As was said, there are persons still alive who may have something to share with us about the death of Walter Rodney, and those persons should speak now.
I can understand why the present crop of leaders within the government may not see this as a big issue. Some of them hardly knew Walter Rodney.
To them, he may represent just another of Burnham's victims. Some of them were not around Guyana when he roasted Burnham's balls with his civil disobedience campaign.
Some of the present crop of PPP leaders never lifted a finger against the Burnham regime, so they can hardly be expected to identify with the need, after close to twenty- five years, to bring closure to the assassination of Walter Rodney.
The PPP had no part in the murder of Rodney. Those who wish to revise our history must know that they will not succeed in rescuing Burnham from the murder of Walter Rodney.
However, now that those interested in turning Burnham into the ultimate African- Guyanese hero have been unsuccessful in placing blame for the death of Walter Rodney at the doorstep of the PPP, it is possible that they may seek to try to pin his death as the work of the CIA, acting independent of the PNC.
I am afraid that they will be sorely disappointed. There are sufficient people still alive to inform Guyanese about the involvement of the PNC in the death of Walter Rodney.