Dear Editor,
August 5 marked the 31st death anniversary of Linden Forbes Samson Burnham who was the longest serving head of state even though he died at a relatively young age of sixty-two.
Burnham ruled Guyana for twenty-one years first as Prime Minister and then as
Executive President following constitutional changes in 1980 which bestowed on him sweeping powers even greater than that of the president of the United States.
Despite attempts at reconstructing his image, Burnham will go down in history as someone who presided over the collapse of the Guyana economy and the destruction of the democratic fabric of the society. Despite our vast resources the country was reduced to one of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere due mainly to undemocratic rule and mismanagement of the economy.
There are some who gave him credit for raising Guyana’s international profile but this was done mainly to bolster his image as a leader of the Third World.
The fact is that there was a significant divergence between the country’s foreign image which was projected as progressive and socialist oriented and the domestic circumstance which was characterized by rigged elections and the denial of basic and fundamental rights which included freedom of the press.
Given such a scenario it is difficult to arrive at any satisfactory reconciliation between his actions at the domestic level and his utterances at the international level which provided little if any space for political reconciliation and national unity.
The verdict is still out on what exactly was his legacy and more particularly his contribution to the growth and development of a prosperous and cohesive society.
There are many who are of the view that the negatives outweigh the positives and that Guyana under his rule never really benefitted from a leadership and governance style that encouraged the fullest participation of Guyanese in the nation building processes. Indeed, under his watch Guyana lagged behind several other countries in the Caribbean in terms of economic and social development.
Yours faithfully,
Hydar Ally
