Impartiality of the Chairman of the Rodney’s COI

The disclosure via the Electronic Media in Guyana, resulting from an article published in the Barbadian Advocate News – dated June 30^th 1980 captioned: Chetenham pays his tribute, is cause for grave alarm concerning the impartiality of the Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into the death of Dr. Walter Rodney. It is clear from the report in the Advocate News, that Sir Richard Cheltenham not only knew Dr. Walter Rodney, but was an admirer and was inspired by him.

In June 1980, Sir Richard Cheltenham paid tribute to Dr. Walter Rodney at a memorial service held at the Ursuline Convent in Barbados. Sir Richard in his eulogy said: “But to be stunned by his death is not enough. Those of us who knew him and were inspired by him must continue to work for social change…..We can only hope…that his comrades friends and admirers will continue to keep aloft the banners which he raised and which men were proud to follow.”

The People’s National Congress Reform feels that prior disclosure of such an acquaintance, though not impugning the Chairman’s impartiality, could have forestalled public misperceptions which unavoidably and unfortunately, albeit unjustifiably, are now not unlikely to arise.