Rupert Roopnaraine’s swearing in--Freddie Kissoon

JUNE 9, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine was sworn in as the Senior Minister of Education and it just went uncommented throughout Guyana. Maybe he wasn’t singled out by the press because others were sworn in with him. But even if he was alone when he took the oath, I doubt it would have made a difference because of the shape of our present demography. Few Guyanese among the large section of our under forty population know about the courage of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) in the seventies. When Rupert Roopnaraine was administered the Oath of Office, it wasn’t Roopnaraine that was sworn in but the WPA. Roopnaraine was the physical symbol but it was the collective presence of the WPA that stood before the President and took the Oath. The WPA long, long ago deserved to be involved in the legitimate administration of Guyana. We can disagree on many aspects of Guyana’s history and no doubt we will for a very long time to come. But in the large puzzle, there are pieces that will fit neatly that we cannot argue over. Forbes Burnham went in some wrong directions. Why do we want to deny that? Forbes Burnham was a fierce nationalist that refused to abandon and never abandoned the welfare of the working people of Guyana. Why do we want to dispute that? Cheddi Jagan was trapped in an Indian vortex he couldn’t get out of and it dented his short stint as President of Guyana. Why would we want to reject that? Jagan was an incorruptible man that would not have ruled against the interest of the labouring masses and small peasantry. It is wrong to deny him this legacy. The United Force in the sixties was a shameless pro-business party, but its leaders had genuine fears of communism in a country that was the neighbour of the USA, and whose small population did not want communism. We may not have liked such a small European-oriented party ruling a predominantly dark-skinned Guyana, but its leaders knew that a communist PPP meant the destruction of traditional democratic values. We saw this in Burnham, 1968-1985 and in the PPP, 1992-2015. Desmond Hoyte remains one of the post-colonial phenomenal leaders. The political theorist cannot deny that. But there is a large but. Hoyte knew nothing about Guyana’s politics and sociology. Hoyte played a huge role in the weakening of the political economy of African Guyanese. It is difficult to support Hoyte with a plausible argument in this context. The WPA was a historic organization. Time has moved on, contexts change, zeitgeists come and go and they took the WPA with them. The WPA is virtually a shell of its pristine self. I doubt the WPA will grow larger to be influential to challenge the PNC as a party, or the Alliance For Change. I see an ongoing diminution of the PPP but I doubt the WPA will be a formidable player in the future. I don’t think it will move off the scene. It would be best for it to start the recruiting process among young Guyanese. History, though, will always be kind to the WPA. When Rupert Roopnaraine was sworn in, history smiled on the WPA. It was history in its poetic essence. The WPA deserved to be in government a long time ago. It is now. There is only one WPA Cabinet Minister but it is the historical symbol that is important. If you are going to say that Burnham and the PNC, Jagan and the PPP are historic and enduring legacies then so are Walter Rodney and the WPA. What is so philosophically instructive about the WPA is that its continued presence in the Guyanese fabric is a constant reminder that our anti-colonial fighters were not the heroes we made them out to be. Burnham applied unnecessary violence to the WPA after it became vocal about Burnham’s unusual power temptations. Cheddi Jagan became extremely ungrateful to the WPA after he became President and treated that party with the same contempt that Burnham showed. Once the WPA stays alive, the younger generation will have to be told that the greatness of the Burnham/Jagan duet was a poorly recorded song. As Guyana heads into a brave, brand new world, its young generation must be constantly advised to remember those who struggled to make that new hospitable horizon a place of invitation. Indians may persist with their hero Jagan. Africans may do the same for Burnham. But whenever the picture of the current Minister of Education comes on the television screen or in the newspapers, let it be a reminder that many more other than Burnham and Jagan are heroes too.