RETURN TAKUBA LODGE TO ITS ORIGINAL OWNERS

Feb 26, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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After the PPP won the 1992 elections, in the interest of peace, it refused to examine some of the terrible abuses that were committed during the previous twenty-eight years. A great deal of wrong was done under the PNC. Many persons were dispossessed of their properties during that era.
A few weeks ago, the matriarch of the popular Kissoon business family did an interview in another newspaper. In that interview she related things that were characteristic of the abuse of power that took place under Forbes Burnham. The former dictator had run the country as if it were his. He was known to have taken away properties at his whim and fancy.
In his corner were the most archaic laws which he exploited to full tilt. He took away your property in the interest of the public and paid you 1939 valuations. Amongst those that were dispossessed by the PNC government was the Kissoon family.
It is a telling compliment to the hypocrisy of this country that despite those stunning revelations of how Burnham disposed the Kissoon family of their properties, not a single line has been since penned about those notorious public acquisitions.
The family lost property because Burnham felt he could do as he pleased. He had the power achieved through rigged elections and he believed he was answerable to no one.
Among the properties lost by the Kissoon family was Takuba Lodge, a building that is today worth perhaps close to US$5M. According to the matriarch of the family, she was told that Burnham said he was afraid that the Russians would shoot him from that location. Imagine that became the reason to acquire the property.
Burnham encouraged the family to build that property for the Non-Aligned Summit and when it was over he simply seized it because he could do as he pleased, since with a two-third majority there was no one to overturn the law that allowed him to pay 1939 valuations for properties acquired for public purposes in the eighties.
We were also told in the interview that twelve villas, now known as Echilibar Villas, were also taken away by Burnham who paid the miserly sum of one million dollars for properties which today would fetch over US$1M.
Then there was the case of Hope Estate, which it was said was taken away from the mother of the matriarch of the Kissoon family. She related how her mother pined away after the estate was taken away.
And for what purpose did Burnham take away that estate? So that he could use it as part of his personal estate. He lived right next door at Belfield and he used to ride around like the plantation owners of colonial Guyana. He used to ride around on horseback and belch out orders to government employees who, for fear of losing their jobs, went to do manual work and so that they could get to buy food.
There were many other families that suffered under the infamy of those 1939 valuations. Their properties were taken away in the seventies and eighties. This was highway robbery.
This is one of the reasons why so many persons in that period moved their wealth overseas and why such a rapacious culture developed within the business community. You did not know when your property could be publicly acquired and so you tried to make huge profits and shuttle them outside of Guyana.
There is need for the media to do an investigative series about the lands and buildings that were taken away under the PNC. That part of Guyanese history should not be left covered under the rubble of the destructive policies of that era which the PPP decided not to trouble with.
There are still many old-timers around who will recall what was done and their families would still be willing to provide details. But knowing how some of our journalists operate, this is likely to be a no-go for them. A great deal of pain was caused by these policies and these persons who suffered need to be given some form of redress.
At least for the Kissoon family, who suffered more than most, they need to have compensation for what was done to them. The least that can be done is to give them back Takuba Lodge!
The PPP has to its credit changed the laws concerning compensation for properties acquired for public purposes. The law now provides for compensation at market values and the land on which the Water Street vendors market is located was compulsorily acquired, paying in excess of $300 million dollars. The government had said that the owners had only paid $10M for it.
The point is that if the government takes over your property today, they have to pay fair market values, unlike in the past when the PNC were only obligated to pay 1939 values.
Even though the old law is now changed, there needs to be a constitutional guarantee that no simple parliamentary majority, in fact no majority at all, should overturn the provision that now provides for fair market compensation for properties compulsorily acquired.

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