Dear Editor,
The news report that the late President Burnham was to be honoured by South Africa disappoints those of us who fought against apartheid rule. It also does a disservice to those who truly fought against colonial rule. The award dishonours the memory of Dr Walter Rodney and others who were assassinated under the Burnham regime for their political dissent and the many others who were victims in the struggle for the restoration of democracy.
The ruling ANC in South Africa says it is honouring Burnham for his anti-apartheid struggle and anti-colonial stance on southern Africa. They are wrong. Burnham did not contribute significantly against apartheid.
Burnham was no democrat. Surely, the ANC intellectuals and activists are familiar with the struggle waged in Guyana and internationally against Burnham’s rule. I worked with ANC activists at City College to oppose apartheid and my South African friends joined us in condemning Burnham’s repressive rule as well as the assassination of Rodney. Many of us picketed the South African Consulate and Embassy to the UN. I remember in the early 1980s joining CCNY President Bernard Harleston and Vice President George McDonald as well as Student Activities Director Ed Evans to engage in civil disobedience in front of the SA Mission to the UN. Prof James Small and Len Jefferies also went to the protest.
They submitted themselves for arrest for civilian disobedience while I did not (because I did not want an arrest profile as a student) in calling for an end to apartheid rule. But I did focus international attention on Guyana. I wrote twice to Oliver Tambo soliciting his assistance to fight against Burnhamism.
And when Mandela was released from jail, I also wrote to him to seek his assistance to return Guyana to democratic rule. I never got a response from either one and neither one helped us in our battle to restore democracy in Guyana.
It is inexplicable who would have lobbied the ANC for Burnham to receive this award. There are those who are going to the ends of the earth to rehabilitate Forbes Burnham but only succeed in opening up old wounds.
The current crop of ANC rulers are familiar with Rodney’s name from his professorial days in Tanzania from where he campaigned against apartheid and supported African liberation movements. In Guyana, Rodney was the second most popular political leader after Jagan from the mid-1970s till his assassination in June 1980.
He succeeded more than anyone else in bringing Blacks and Indians together to oppose the Burnham state.
As Rickey Singh penned, Dr Jagan is widely recognised at home, regionally and internationally, as Guyana’s foremost consistent champion, in and out of government, in the struggle to end British colonialism in the region. As others pointed out, the entire world opposed apartheid and Burnham did not do anything extraordinary.
Oliver Tambo stood up against oppression as many did. The granting of this posthumous award in his honour to Burnham demeans the memory of Oliver Tambo and people like Mandela who spent 28 years in jail fighting apartheid. The ANC government should consider withdrawing the award.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
