Dear Editor,
I refer to a letter written by a literary contemporary of mine, Mr Barrington Braithwaite (‘Letter on Burnham was written in a historical vacuum’ SN, August 14), in response to my letter, ‘Burnham achieved nothing,’ published in the Stabroek News on August 10.
To begin with, the caption of my letter sent to the editor was: ‘Remembering Forbes Burnham.’ and not ‘Burnham achieved nothing.’
Mr Braithwaite wrote that my letter on Burnham was written “in a historical vaccum,” which I found very amusing. In his reply to me he praised some of the achievements of Burnham by stating emphatically that “Forbes Burnham inherited a former British colony, or Guyana. His task was to decolonize a social system stratified along strict class and church power that ensured the continuation of ethnic privileges.”
I am still probably too politically naive to comprehend what Mr Braithwaite meant. Since Burnham was placed to govern Guyana by the former colonial British masters and Jagan was excommunicated because of his communist ideology, I wondered what the changes were that Burnham had implemented to decolonize this obscure social system. Burnham and Jagan fought for Guyana’s independence, which was granted by the British on May 26, 1966. But since then, have we really been an independent nation? Were we better under Burnham’s tenure in office when he banned several foodstuffs like wheat flour, split peas, sardines, onions, garlic, etc, when he himself was smoking Cuban cigars?
The progress of a nation economically, socially, morally, spiritually and intellectually is based on the politics of the nation. The political ideology implemented by Burnham and Jagan was the flawed Marxist-Leninism, which pushed Guyana into more debt and bankruptcy. I lived in Guyana during the Burnham era and was a victim of the long lines where one stood for the whole day for kero, rice, milk, butter, etc. One of my sisters was nearly killed by a stampede in a line at a co-op shop for one tin of Canada Best milk. It was Burnham who introduced rice flour – a new phrase to deceive his followers. What is rice flour? Can Mr Braithwaite define that term for me?
If Burnham was the great leader as Mr Barringthon proclaimed him to be then he should explain to the Guyanese nation why up until today there are not one million people in Guyana. A massive migration began of both Indian and African Guyanese in the Burnham era which has lasted until now. Why did people migrate? Because they needed food, clothes and better living conditions. Burnham failed in his so-called promise to feed, clothe and house the nation. Many wrote to me by stating that Burnham built the Linden Highway, the Demerara Harbour Bridge, banks, schools, roads, etc. The fact of the matter is people don’t eat roads, schools and bridges; they need food, and Burnham created hardship by removing many basic food items from the shop shelves, including bread.
After he died on August 6,1985, Mr Hoyte brought back the foodstuff Burnham banned, because he understood the basic human need was food, and if he could give Guyana food then he could rebuild the country and bring in foreign investors to invest in Guyana’s poor economy.
It was Hoyte who allowed Jimmy Carter and the election observer teams to observe the 1992 elections. The world is fully aware that Burnham rigged elections from 1968 and never won a free and fair elections against the PPP. A true leader would have his nation’s interest at heart, but Burnham was only concerned about his achievements. I firmly believe he was not even concerned about his own political party because he never named a leader to succeed him.
Our conscious present is an awareness of the past; we must accept the fact that our past political history is loaded with racial politics and wrong godless political philosophies that pushed our country further and further into economic instability. Those who have accepted Burnham’s failed socialist political ideology are probably blind to the truth of this nation’s suffering. Having said that we must not use our past to destroy our future, but use our past to build a better future. We can only learn from our mistakes. I have nothing against our political heroes but the wrong political ideologies they embraced destroyed us economically and socially.
We would have been better off today if we were still ruled by the British. May I remind Mr Braithwaite that Forbes Burnham received a classical education from the colonial masters and was given a legal education at the University of London. Today our entire free education system implemented by Burnham failed because of the massive migration of trained teachers from his era until today. More and more poorly educated persons are graduating at our university, yet we believe we have arrived academically.
I will agree with Mr Braithwaite when he said that my letter was written in a “historical vaccum”; that vaccum was created by Burnham. Maybe we need a new political and historical vaccum cleaning of Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Rev Gideon Cecil
