Name something after Rodney, Hoyte and Morrison
THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN
Kaieteur News
December 19, 2006
When Mr. Ranji Chandisingh gave a guest talk to my students years ago, when it was question time, I asked him how he would explain his long condemnation of the PNC as a PPP leader, now that he was a PNC leader. In a neat, succinct way, he gentle told his audience, “I saw things, differently then” By then, he meant when he was a PPP leader.
One is just eager to hear how Janet Jagan and the old PPP stalwarts would answer a similar question though in a different context. The question would be: “Why are you doing things the PNC did and which you criticized when you were in opposition?”
It would be intellectually fascinating to hear the explanation. But the answer will be more intriguing depending on which one of the many PNC policies that the PPP rejected and now find pleasurable to adopt. Take the subject of personality cult.
Personality cult made the news around the globe during the invasion of Iraq. It was brought to light that Saddam even named a city after himself. Saddam Hussein was surely into personality cult when you see the myriad of statutes he built as a testimony to his rule.
Guyana's experience with the adulation and adoration of the maximum leader began with Forbes Burnham. He named so many things after him including the city of Mackenzie. The PPP at that time didn't take lightly to this deification of Burnham and rightfully condemned it.
Hoyte broke with the tradition and eschewed ostentatious celebrations of his personality. Hoyte even slept in his own home on North Road. The post Cheddi Jagan government has reintroduced the frenetic and fanatical rejoicing of the leader's life.
In December 2000, I did a Kaieteur column on this runaway personality cult of Dr. Jagan by the PPP. After that column, the glorification process moved on, with the latest being the newly built UG lecture theatre.
So what do we have at the moment? The airport is named after Cheddi. That is as major as you can get. It should probably have stopped there because the country's only international airport is a significant aspect of a nation's landscape. I recalled that when the controversy over the naming of the airport boiled over even a steadfast supporter like Rickey Singh was not enthusiastic about the name game.
Well it should have stopped with the airport change-over. But the story goes on. The dental school is named after Cheddi and just around the corner from it is the Cheddi Jagan Memorial Library and a street in Demerara and one in Berbice are named after the founder-leader of the PPP. At UG, students will attend classes in the Cheddi Jagan Lecture Theatre.
Obviously, this process will go on once the old core of the PPP remains the shakers and movers in the corridors of power. One suspects that the Berbice Bridge (if it ever gets born) will have Cheddi's name. Something big will be given his name too in Essequibo. Throw in a few bridges and some more roads and Cheddi will certainly be ubiquitous in the Republic.
Now hear this. Do you know the last director of the Foreign Service Institute, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Harold Sahadeo actually renamed the institute after Cheddi and the board of directors were livid and repudiated the move? In a diplomatic institution, the head diplomat was totally undiplomatic. But who knows, another person might try again. Really and truly the cult of the personality of Cheddi Bharrat Jagan is on.
But what about Desmond Hoyte and Walter Rodney?
It is time, Rodney's remains be transferred from Le Repentir cemetery to a popular site where its fixture will remain fixed in the psyche of the nation. To accomplish this task, Rodney's family will have to give approval. I don't see why they would refuse. Would they object to the Place of the Seven Ponds? If not, then let's do that this year.
If not the Botanical Gardens, then somewhere else. Also the Turkeyen access road that leads to UG at Cummings Lodge should be named the Walter Rodney Street.
Walter Rodney is a Guyanese hero in the same class as any other Guyanese hero and that includes Critchlow and Jagan and his memory must be ensconced in some public place.
The same goes for Hoyte.
For a man who was the president of this country, Hoyte was indeed a modest person. Unlike Rodney's wife, Mrs. Hoyte will not have to deal with the emotion of bodily remains. She will have to agree whether she would like some public place to be named after her husband. One can only assume that since she didn't object to channel 9 being named after Mr. Hoyte, then she wouldn't in another context.
Somewhere very prominent in Guyana must be named after this gentleman who in his own enigmatic way allowed for democratic restoration. In addition to that area or structure of Guyana that will be named after him, maybe changing Charlotte Street where he grew up could be a workable idea. Rodney was born in Bent Street so that too could be given the Rodney touch.
Very soon, and I think as early as the coming months, the government of Guyana should invite proposals from the public about the ways of embedding the memories of these two outstanding sons of the soil.
I would also like to see something done for Father Andrew Morrison. Undoubtedly one of the great heroes of contemporary Guyana, his tireless pursuits to see the restoration of democracy in Guyana would be remembered by generations to come.
The truth is Hoyte, Rodney and Morrison are now prominent chapters in the history of Guyana. I thought when the Catholics had re-entered private schooling in this country, the first Catholic school would have been named after him. There may have been some political sensitivities there, but a hero is a hero, and maybe the beautiful Catholic college on Carifesta Avenue should have been named after this giant of a Guyanese.
A generation from now, young Guyanese will not pay undue attention to the second half of the 20th century in Guyana. But as they pass by places in the country of their birth, and they see the names of Hoyte, Rodney and Morrison emblazoned on the landscape, they would know what freedom means.