Dear Editor,
Your editorial ‘Burnham Award’ in Sunday Stabroek of April 28 seemed fair and rational. However, you were careful to avoid any statement that expressly recommended that the South Africans proceed to confer the OR Tambo award as intended.
Critics of LFS Burnham have always attacked him while he was head of state because his policies were tailored to meet the needs of the Guyana developmental agenda at that specific point in time. Burnham was seen to be successful in the implementation of all his plans and programmes, even with limited foreign assistance or no foreign government assistance.
In your editorial you stated, “Forbes Burnham was no democrat, at least, he was no democrat where Guyana was concerned.”
That statement is less than reflective of Burnham who could be considered a victim of his success. He astutely propelled Guyana from a colony of the British Empire to an independent nation, to a republic which afforded us total political freedom from the former colonial masters. Burnham successfully instituted a Guyanisation process which had to do with decolonization of the minds of the Guyanese people to get them to accept the need to pursue local industrialization and self-sufficiency in food production.
Sabotage of the economy was the order of the day by the PPP inspired by Jagan. Resistance to development plans under Burnham took the form of industrial action in the sugar
industry to curtail achievement of the production target. In spite of the resistance and sabotage of the sugar industry under the Burnham government, sugar production targets were attained and were superior to what obtains now under the PPP appointed managers and board members of GuySuCo.
However, it is worth noting that the O R Tambo award is not based on the indigenous track record of the recipient, according to my understanding, but is largely contingent on whether the recipient promoted South Africa’s interests and aspirations through co-operation, solidarity and support. Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham without any doubt, stands tall, even above the criteria set for beneficiaries of the award.
He gave unswerving support to the cause of freedom for the African people in South Africa and championed a clarion call for the end to apartheid. He supported economic sanctions at the United Nations, initiated Guyana’s sports boycott of contacts with apartheid South Africa and sports personalities who may have violated the boycott policy.
Notwithstanding his perennial problems with the economy, he set aside a donation to the liberation government in exile to assist the effort.
I find it disturbing that the detractors of Burnham could by using insinuations, suspicions, jaundiced considerations and unproven information influence a South African government headed by Mr Jacob Zuma who was in the trenches fighting the apartheid regime forces when Burnham was consuming much energy in mobilizing world opinion against apartheid.
I posit the view that South Africa’s entrenched apartheid system of government did not collapse because of Mr Zuma and others’ battlefield exploits only. The mobilization of world opinion, the unrelenting international criticisms, ridicule and insults, caused the isolation of the racist regime and forced the embattled government to give into changes.
Burnham I believe, never gave of his time and energy, or shared his intellect and donated Guyana’s meagre US dollars to the anti-apartheid struggle to South African political leaders in the expectation of an award of any sort. Burnham if he was alive today would not have been moved by whether an intended award was being withheld for ungracious reasons. Burnham’s contribution was for selfless reasons; he was determined to assist in whatever way to free black South Africans from apartheid.
The South Africans should confer on LFS Burnham, his well-deserved award.
Yours faithfully,
Clement A Corlette
Regional Chairman
Region 4
