Dear Editor
Kindly allow me space in your letter column to respond to the debate between the WPA’s Dr. David Hinds and Professor Dr. Randy Persaud.
I quote Dr Persaud who wrote “Apart from Dr. Clive Thomas, the WPA is not known for having any economists, or a deep bench of businesspeople. Most of what comes out of the WPA is old-fashioned ideology from the 1970s and I respectfully say that Mr. Kwayana’s question is a standardized expression of that ‘mentality’. Worse yet, it is a form of dogmatic Marxism combined with strands of Chavez-style populism. As used here, populism means making promises to the masses that are not feasible, and that always fail. I venture to say that the WPA are economic populists.”
Dr. Persaud couldn’t have put it more succinctly.
Dr. Thomas is a failed economist/politician par excellence. He is the only publicly associated economist in the WPA in Guyana. Dr. Thomas has no practical experience and is just a textbook theoretician. This man has not even sold fried yellow plantains by the street corner to gain any practical experience. He knows nothing about business. His only claim to fame is having earlier written a number of articles on the sugar industry in the Stabroek News.
He is a failed politician. When offered the position to become Prime Minister by Dr Cheddi Jagan in the 1992 government he failed to take up the magnanimous offer. When he was made CEO of GUYSUCO by the APNU-AFC coalition one of his premeditated dastardly decisions was to fire 7000 predominantly Indian sugar workers putting them on the breadline. Not one acre of land was each given to take care of their extended families. The PPP/C of Dr. Bharat Jagdeo failed to champion their plight. The obvious aim was to break the back of the workers’ GAWU and to impoverish and destabilize the PPPC base.
Dr. Thomas’ close WPA comrade in arms is Dr David Hinds with both having as their mentor Mr Eusi Kwayana-all famous for their Afrocentric extremism. It is true that the trio are stuck in Guyana’s 1970s politics as Professor Persaud so correctly wrote but they seem more militant in today’s 21st century. Theirs is old-fashioned ideological dogma with their approach being done with an uncompromising Afrocentric aggressiveness. This has resulted in the WPA becoming a concentrated Afrocentric entity since the death of its legendary WPA leader Dr. Walter Rodney. The WPA in effect has today become a decrepit shell from what it once was. It is stuck in the past.
Some have come to the conclusion and it has become clearer that when the Afrocentric bunch were fighting Mr Forbes Burnham’s PNC they thought he was too soft in pursuing Afrocentric interests. Their strategy in the 1970s and onwards was intent on railroading Mr. Burnham into more aggressive Afrocentric policies. No wonder Mr. Burnham labeled the WPA as the Worst Possible Alternative.
It is well established that Mr. Kwayana is the patriarch of Afrocentric thought in Guyana. In 1961 he was adamantly opposed to the PPP leading British Guiana into independence from Britain. Mr. Kwayana did not want to be ruled by Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s “coolie” rice government. Mr. Burnham said he would support the PPP if they won the 1961 elections. But under Mr. Kwayana’s blistering attack that Black people would be better off living on their own, he proposed the partition of British Guiana. There is no written record of Mr Kwyana apologizing for that suggestion and it therefore remains to be seen whether he is right. And Mr. Kwyana needs to apologize
for WISMAR.
Respectfully
Vassan Ramracha