Dear Editor,
A year ago one of Guyana’s finest sons passed away. Winston Shripal Murray went to the great beyond on November 22, 2010. And although we were all devastated by his passing we were confident that the legacy he left behind would be a source of comfort as well as inspiration.
Here we have entered on an important subject: the legacy of Winston Murray and its contribution to the development of the politics of decency in Guyana. I believe that the best tribute that can be paid to my colleague and friend as we observe his first death anniversary is to link his work and achievements as a politician, a Minister and a member of Parliament to the larger goals of the political and human society in which he moved and had his being. It is no accident that at the time of his death it was widely recognized, across the racial and political divide, that Winston Murray had made a contribution to the change in direction of our political culture. He helped to extend the boundaries in which decency, transparency, good will and the honest competition of ideas could flourish. We will certainly as a society and a people be eternally grateful to him for his life and the manner in which he lived it.
As a people we tend not to pay sufficient attention to the influence of an individual’s background on his development.
It is for this reason that we sometimes do not recognize the talents of some of our best citizens until it is too late. A glance, even if cursory, at Winston Murray’s family and political background would give good pointers to the man and politician he became. Growing up on the Island of Leguan he learnt early about the need for racial tolerance, the effect of poverty on members of our society, and that it was imperative to live one’s life in the service of the wider community.
It is for these reasons that Winston Murray pushed himself to obtain an excellent education after teaching for many years on the Island of Leguan. Graduating from the London School of Economics he returned to a Guyana, weighed down by racial strife and engaged in one of its bouts of fratricidal politics. Winston Murray could have moved on to greener pastures but his love for his country held him. It was at this point that he committed himself to two courses of action, which were to have a bearing on his future existence. He joined the People’s National Congress and committed himself to the pursuit to government service. It would be pertinent here to say that Murray would tell friends and colleagues later that he joined the PNC because he felt that it had superior policies for dealing with the racial question.
Winston Murray was also to explain that his rapid rise in the Public Service came in spite of his racial heritage and was based solely on his competence. And his rise was rapid indeed. Recognized by the then Prime Minister Burnham he was posted to the diplomatic Mission in Brussels and at the United Nations. The upward trend in his career continued when he became in the seventies a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Secretary to the Treasury and then Minister of Trade under President Hoyte. Winston Murray acquitted himself so well, by administrative skill as well as by his intellectual rigour, that he eventually rose to the high position of Deputy Prime Minister.
After the PNC lost the 1992 elections, Winston Murray shone as a parliamentarian. His presentations were of the highest order, penetrative, and often of such compelling logic that he won plaudits from both sides of the aisle. It is arguable that he was the best parliamentarian of his generation in Guyana and the rest of the region.
In 2007, after serving the PNCR as its Chairman for many years, he decided to run for the leadership of the party. Though unsuccessful, he left a legacy of struggle for free and transparent elections, transparency in the conduct of its business, mutual respect among members, and leadership based on ideas rather than cronyism and political muscle. Political defeat was transmuted into moral victory.
His popularity in the party soared. When, therefore, the leader of the party, Mr Robert Corbin, announced that he would not be the presidential candidate for the 2011 elections, Winston Murray threw his hat in the ring. Forming a group of like-minded colleagues, he campaigned with zeal throughout the length and breadth of Guyana. His campaign was decorated by attractive ideas.
In an address to ACDA, for example, he argued for making shared governance a constitutional requirement. On the Essequibo Coast, mere weeks before his death, he called for wealth creation and its equitable distribution. His was a mission for a better Guyana society in every particular with education being the crowning factor. But the transformation of Guyana had to be preceded by the transformation of the party that he served so well and so long into a recognised democratic institution.
We are weeks away from national and regional elections. The campaign to date has been disfigured by poor behaviour on the stump and a patent lack of original ideas. Moreover, the eloquence which has been part of our tradition and culture is absent. It has also brought to the fore the extent to which Guyana has become a corrupt, uncaring and coarse society. These things would have caused Winston Murray spiritual agony and psychic pain. I am sure he is looking from his great vantage point and shaking his head in disappointment and despair. If he were on the campaign trail he would have improved its tone by his eloquence, his humour and his persuasive plans for a racially harmonious, cohesive and prosperous Guyana. I submit that we can bring peace and contentment to Winston Murray’s soul by seeking a victory which would champion the causes he so ardently espoused and so bring the goal of a prosperous and democratic Guyana nearer to fruition. We owe him this much.
Yours faithfully,
Carl Greenidge
