Clairvoyance

May 29, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Vincent Alexander is the latest person to imply that there are those who opposed the Burnham Government and that when they see what is going on in today’s Guyana, there may be some reflections on their part (see some excellent responses from him in an interview in the Sunday Stabroek, May 24).

The most explicit position on this dilemma is by Ras Tom Dalgetty. Tom was a strong WPA supporter in the seventies and eighties and was not just a supporter but a resource person. A few years ago he took the position that the WPA should not have sought to remove Burnham (which was their intention) but to seek to modify Burnham’s inflexibilities (my word).

It is easy for Tom to say that after hindsight. At that time, even Tom too wanted a change. There are now countless Guyanese who think that given the level of harshness and discrimination that characterizes the Government of Guyana today, the confrontations that eventually led to the weakening of the PNC rule was a strategic mistake.

I repeat; it is easy to come to that judgement in hindsight. Untold numbers have placed their faith in new leaders who have turned out worse than their predecessors. How could they know that? Clairvoyance is not a science and it is doubtful that the average person in the past and at the present time can predict the future.

This writer supported the Iranian Revolution. I no longer do so. I think the Iranian Government is a million times worse than the monarchy of the Shah. The Iranian people need to remove their government and replace it with a democratic system.

Back then, the Shah appeared as a monarch who lived in luxury and was a puppet of American hegemony. No one had clairvoyant powers to see how those Iranian revolutionary leaders would have turned out. The world supported Mugabe. The World Council of Churches took a decision that was immensely controversial and provided financial aid to Mugabe when he was leading his guerrilla group fighting the Rhodesia Government.

Today, Mugabe has disappointed perhaps all the peoples in the world that supported him when he was a freedom fighter.

The world’s youth was enamoured with Castro. Perhaps most decent persons living on earth in the sixties saw a great future in Fidel Castro. Look at Cuba today. It has nothing to offer the 21st century. As a citizen of a poor country with good relation with Cuba, I wonder all the time why is it only medical doctors that Cuba can send us.

Doesn’t Cuba have other things? We need cement, sewage pipes, industrial machines, chemicals for our state-owned laboratories etc. All we can get from Cuba is doctors. The Cuban Government sends the doctors after we build the hospitals. It never built a hospital for us.

The above is a mild criticism when one considers the non-existence in Cuba of the freedoms that came down to modern societies through centuries of great struggle of past generations. Do we know what the future holds? Can we predict what Obama will do three years from now?

But we love him and from what we know of him so far, we have to embrace him.

It is great to know that there are people in and out of Guyana that can see into the future but when we were fighting the PNC Government under Forbes Burnham, there were no clairvoyants in our midst at that time.

One crucial consideration that is missing from the rush to judgement on the part of those who tell us that Burnham wasn’t as bad as the present PPP Government so why did we seek to remove him is that they conveniently forget that what Burnham was doing was not right.

I cannot speak for the countless thousands who fought against the Burnham dictatorship. I cannot speak for those brilliant WPA leaders who fearlessly confronted Burnham. But this I know; as part of that movement, I have no regrets.

If I have to live my life all over again, I would follow the same political path I did in the seventies and eighties. Yes, I concede that there are forms in the exercise of power at the present moment, that are more unjust, unfair, despotic and undemocratic than when the PNC, under Mr. Burnham, controlled things. But Mr. Burnham was an autocrat. He believed in one-dimensional society. He made Guyana into such a country. He committed terrible violations that decent people should have opposed.

Decent people had every right to oppose such tyranny. The fight against Burnham was justified. For those who fought in that era if they still have energy, they should continue the struggle against the PPP Government.