Dear Editor,
A few days ago, I listened to the letter by Dr. Vishnu Bisram, PhD. in Kaieteur News on November 13, in reply to my “retort”. He asked me a very simple question, whether I was “that young African teacher from the neighbouring village of Buxton who led a hostile band heading towards the school”. No, Dr. Vishnu Bisram, PhD., historian, I was not that person and could not be. My involvement with primary school education ended early in the decade previous to the one treated by Mr. Randall Butisingh in his book. Shri Butisingh, Mr. Albert Ogle and I were a close trio, teaching at the same school when my involvement in primary education came to an end. I write this out of respect for your readers and will add no more details, for fear that some enterprising historian may use such details to create further insulting stories about my alleged activities.
I am the one political person from among the ministers of 1953 to write a series of articles about my part in Guyana’s ethnic politics. I was also the only minister of the 133-days government who lived in the country and not in the city. The British White Paper of 1953 wrote, among other things, that the crowds were “willing to do violence at the bidding of the leaders, especially Mr. King.” A number of Guyanese, resident in the USA, have accused me of various forms of aggression, amounting to felonies against humans. This will be my last attempt to respond to the accusations, as I understand their common purpose very well. If they genuinely want to serve the cause of justice, as they claim, they have the resources to compile a criminal indictment against me with all the evidence, including oral evidence, and drag me before a court of justice, which will summon me to answer such an indictment. They must stop fooling around, as I can only answer as long as I am blessed to be on the planet and aware, and not when I am dead.
When I have had charges against people in power, I have sworn to affidavits or taken the witness stand to justify my allegations. I expect similar treatment and not newspaper allegations that create an impression without taking responsibility.
If the criminal law has set limits on the time during which prosecution can be made, then the present PPP government with its focus on rule of law can be asked to set up Commissions of Inquiry into all the incidents of ethnic cleansing in British Guiana. These will include incidents in Rosehall, Wismar, Casbah, Zeelugt, the killings of the Sealeys in May 1964, the Buxton fires, the shooting of three Buxton farmers in July 1964, the two separate incidents in Mahaicony, the bombing of the Son Chapman which was never investigated, although the government of the day quite rightly appointed a Commission on the May 1964 ethnic cleansing in Wismar.
I have just read Mr Vassan Ramracha’s letter in Kaieteur news. He may see me as a divisive figure if he wishes. What I proposed in 1961 was risky and open to his description as divisive. However, I hope to give him the formal opportunity of justifying his repeated claim of any association whatever between me and the events of May and July in Wismar of 1964. I was also in no position in what was the “political wilderness” in 1964 to engage in any conference or consultation that may have chosen the date of independence.
In this letter, he accuses me of blaming Mrs Jagan for a statement which in the recent letter I clearly wrote was attributed to her in African communities and to me in Indian communities. I am sorry I did not make it clearer. I have evidence in writing however that Mr. Ramracha does not withdraw his misstatements even when they are pointed out to him.
By the way, Mr. Butisingh and I have had no hostility in our relationship. It was I, and not Dr. Bisram, that he invited to write the introduction to his last work, which is still available in print.
Yours Respectfully,
Eusi Kwayana
