They have made Forbes Burnham look like a toy soldier

Aug 06, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Today marks the death anniversary of Forbes Burnham. This is a name that haunts me all the time, not episodically, but all the time. In the supermarket, gas station, restaurant, shopping mall, market, on the street, people would come up and say; “Freddie, ya’ll throw out Burnham but look wuh ya’ll put in.”
These are not just ordinary people who go about their business and take a low interest in politics. It lacerates my psyche when I hear great, and I really mean, great Guyanese who have absolutely no admiration and love for Burnham, tell me that the PPP Government has turned out to be worse that any other government the Caribbean has produced.
It would send a cold chill down the spine of this society if they know how admirable the people are that have made this observation.
Last Friday evening, I had dinner with someone to whom the late David De Caires confided in. He told me that from speaking to David often and analyzing what he said, he felt David could not have recovered psychologically from David’s own epiphany – the PPP was as bad as the Burnham regime.
I asked why that was so psychically damaging to David De Caires. Before he answered I inquired if the withdrawal of advertisement was the reason and he said no.
His interpretation was that David De Caires knew that he used his paper in 1991 and 1992 to help the PPP win power and if he couldn’t live with the reality that the PPP Government emulated Burnham. “Emulate” was the word he used.
If this person could understand the mental devastation that the PPP Government brought to De Caires, then think of Moses Bhagwan, Bonita Bone, Tacuma Ogunseye, Clive Thomas, Rupert Roopnarine, Eusi Kwayana, David Hinds, Josh Ramsammy and so many others of the WPA era. The personal sacrifice of these people is incalculable. I’ve been with them. I saw their valour and phenomenal praxis.
Today, every name that I cite here holds to the assessment that the PPP Government today is an oligarchy whose nature is more depraved and immoral than the administration of Forbes Burnham.
I was closer to the late Josh Ramsammy than Dr Nanda Gopaul can ever be. Dr. Gopaul rejected my statement that Josh told me that the Jagdeo Government was worse than Burnham.
Why Dr Gopaul chose to query what Josh said when so many others like Josh are saying the identical thing.
I delivered two papers at the annual conference of the Guyana Historical Society last month. At the end of my second delivery on why East Indians are so slow to condemn the atrocities and violations of the PPP Government, a group of Bishops High School students asked me to name some features of the present government that would not have been tolerated by Mr. Burnham. I cited three but there were many more.
First, there is the overt lack of nationalism in the PPP as a party. This is a huge sociological subject that involves the evolution of classes, cultures and ethnicities in Guyana that cannot be dealt with here. Suffice it to say that the cultural ideology of the PPP leaders leads to disrespect and contempt for the State.
The State is seen in derogatory terms by PPP leaders because it is not an institution that is business oriented. More on that later.
Secondly, there is the Aegean stables of corruption. There is no way Forbes Burnham would even for an ephemeral moment allowed his party cadres to pillage the country the way it is being done.
There can be no doubt about it; Guyana under the current cabal has the distinction of being one of the globe’s most corrupt governments. I used to think of Nigeria and Mexico and a few others.
But in this land, corruption makes those two countries look like a children’s party.
Thirdly, I told those students that very few governments around the world in modern times would condone the enormity of sexual misconduct as we see among the political elites.
These people should be brought in front of the courts, and if convicted should be jailed for hundreds of years.
I got a message on my mobile phone inviting me to the ceremony of Burnham’s death
Anniversary today. Even though I conclude that power degeneracy under the PPP Government is worse than Burnham, I wouldn’t attend any eulogistic function in Burnham’s name.
Burnham was a dictator who was shameless in his extremism. He also used his power to hurt me and in the end hurt my mom by trying to get at me. Burnham can go to hell as far as I am concerned.

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They have made Forbes Burnham look like a toy soldier

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