What follows is a substantial extract from `When is the next Rodney inquiry? (SN 07/05/2014) with some additional comments, which I hope indicate how easily we can usually be seduced by the mere existence of opportunity!
“A few weeks ago, after reading the press release GHRA [Guyana Human Rights Association] not convinced about purpose or process of Commission of Inquiry into death of Dr. Walter Rodney” (March 2014), I asked myself ‘When is the next Rodney inquiry?’ Nothing has happened since then to make that question redundant. Indeed, matters have become progressively worse and it would take something of a miracle for the current commission process to bring closure to the Rodney issue as so many had hoped.
“In their press release, the GHRA claimed that it was unacceptable for the government to construct the inquiry process without at least consulting the Working People’s Alliance, the party of which Walter Rodney was the acknowledged leader. It also pointed to what it deemed ‘provocative’ terms of reference, which firmly inserted the PPP into an inquiry in which it should have been marginal. The release also suggested that the act of establishing the inquiry at a time when elections are in the air appears the worst form of electioneering. It will not be party to the inquiry because “Reluctantly the GHRA feels compelled to conclude that the proposed initiative has more to do with prolonging the ethnic dimension of Guyanese politics than laying to rest controversy over who was responsible for Walter Rodney’s death”.
“The GHRA is one of the better known and more credible civil society organisations in Guyana.
