Late night dinner with Moses Bhagwan
Freddie Kissoon Column
Kaieteur News
February 5, 2007
When Eusi Kwayana and Moses Bhagwan migrated from Guyana , a part of this country's political soul went with them.
I would say growing up in a multi-racial environment moulds one's politics. You see the beauty, wonder, excitement, effervescence and good qualities of other people that are racially different from your own “tribe.”
I was born in a house owned by the mother of former Chief Justice, Aubrey Bishop, and delivered by the grandmother of Roger Luncheon in a predominantly African ward in South Georgetown , Wortmanville, affectionately referred to as “Packoodam.” I have never left Packoodam.
My multi-racial character was further polished and shaped by the things I have learnt from people like these two men. When you ground with Kwayana and Bhagwan, you understand how important it is to see that the key to Guyana 's liberation lies in the mutual recognition of the needs of each race group in this country. It was a personal loss for me when Kwayana left because I could have gone to him and probe his fantastic mind.
Moses returns quite often, and the sharpness of the analytical mind is still there. Bhagwan will remain for me one of the best political activists this country has produced. An unassuming man with small bones and a soft voice, Bhagwan lacks charisma and the fierceness of rhetoric that so attracts young people. But the profundity of political thought and the substance of political integrity stand out in this man.
Such qualities could only be to the good of our young people if they engage Bhagwan in political discourse about the future of this nation.
Late into Saturday evening, we had dinner at his home. Our conversation took place on his verandah where a large tropical moon blended with the intrusive Atlantic breeze that drove home the point to anyone that winter is certainly not the season for human beings to live in. I cannot write much less expand on the ideas that Bhagwan has in his head. Our conversation was not for public attention.
But both of us have publicly written about the unacceptable post-1992 decline of the political culture of the East Indians in Guyana. So it is no secret that Moses believes that the post-1992 attitudes of Indians pose a dilemma to the people of this country looking for a sustained future without the ghost of racial division stalking the minds of every citizen.
Moses's recent piece entitled, “Being Indian in Guyana” published as a column by both the Kaieteur News and the Stabroek News is truly a remarkable analysis on the psychological morass with which East Indians have boxed them in. I would advise any East Indian to read this reflection by an outstanding contributor to the freedoms Guyanese now enjoy.
Guyana has a young population and not many of them are familiar with their heroes that fought long and hard to bring us to where we are. If there is any memory I have of Moses is when my wife and I visited him in St. Joseph Mercy Hospital after he was brutalised by the Burnham regime.
He had been arrested for what the government at that time claimed was the illegal publication of the WPA's newssheet, DAYCLEAN.
Today, I look back on those days with passion and anger but I have to keep a level head. Unfortunately, I don't think people like Tacuma Ogunseye and Bonita Bone-Harris have done that.
I have written about it so many times before, and I am writing it now again – I could understand the uncontrollable resentment of people like Ogunseye and Bone-Harris over what the PPP has done to the legacy the WPA left, the way the PPP Government treats African Guyanese and the nasty, vindictive, perverted political culture that has overtaken the entire leadership of the PPP.
But the line had to be drawn somewhere and Ogunseye and Bone-Harris did not know where to draw it.
Harris got integrated into the politics of Ronald Waddell. As someone who grew up in a multi-racial part of Georgetown, was protégéd by some great, multi-racial Guyanese political activists and had intimate friendships with members of the East Indian and African communities not to mention the philosophies that shaped my character and vision, I could not have accepted the politics of Ronald Waddell.
Speaking to him, in disagreement on many occasions, I found his politics to be scary especially in the light of his narrow interpretation of the Guyanese society that bordered on ignorance and his immense misunderstanding of contemporary Guyanese history.
I will offer readers one example of Waddell's total confusion on the nature of politics in this land. Speaking to me on the lower steps of the Social Sciences Faculty at UG, he warned that violence was coming because of the injury Robert Corbin suffered when the police removed him from his one-man protest in front of the Presidential Complex in the aftermath of the 2001 elections.
Waddell was fuming with rage telling me in the past, the PNC Government never went that far and hurt any leader of the Opposition. I was enraged because I lived through the PNC domination of Guyana and saw many leading opposition figures violently assaulted by the police. The list is long but it culminated in the murder of Walter Rodney.
Cheddi Jagan was hauled before the court and charged under the National Security Act with having a piece of a gun at his home. I saw a PNC supporter throw a huge coconut into the chest of Cheddi Jagan at a Parade Ground political meeting.
Corbin was removed by the police for an illegal act. In the case of opposition leaders during the PNC's reign, they were deliberately attacked by elements of the security forces. It is unfortunate that Bonita Bone-Harris never sought to educate her man about the truths of Guyanese politics.
In relation to Ogunseye, well what more could I write that have not been written before? His embrace of what was taking place in Buxton, for me, marked the absolute deterioration of the political character of Ogunseye.
I put forward for Moses's consideration the nuances of the Guyanese political landscape that an expatriate Guyanese would naturally not be aware of because he/she has no integration into the system.
The essential point of mine was that Guyana's political collapse is total. It encompasses the ruling party, the major opposition entity, the lesser opposition figures, civil society, the private media; the whole damn society.
See you soon in Georgetown , Moses.