…but also who is a great Guyanese

Sep 21, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

A refreshing, analytical commentary appeared as the editorial for the September 1, 2012 edition of the Stabroek News. I would recommend it. It does not agree with the flattering portrait of past President, Forbes Burnham, by Opposition Leader David Granger on the 27th death anniversary of Mr. Burnham.
Asking the question as to who is a hero, the writer went on to state that you have to lay down a set of criteria by which to judge a person that you will give hero status to.
The editorial went on to look at the failure of those we commonly refer to as heroes in Guyana, to transcend the almost intractable divisions in Guyana. There is the subtle view taken by the editorial that none of the leaders we describe as heroes could be so titled when you look at this particular failure. I don’t have to be as subtle as the Stabroek News. I am a trained historian with a Masters degree in history and my research led me in the direction to reject Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan as heroes.
You certainly cannot deny their mammoth contribution to Guyana and the adulation that is felt for them across time in this country. But such factors do not make people heroes. As the Stabroek News insists, there must be criteria.
Jagan and Burnham would fail the criteria test. Both men were power-obsessed personalities who damaged this country terribly. Their legacy is a ghost that haunts this land. Their ghost has turned Guyana into a tragedy.
Before we leave this aspect of the debate, I would posit that Fidel Castro would fail the test too. Castro has executed an enormous amount of his citizens and has denied the Cuban people many of the freedoms that they are entitled to in a modern world.
In the same breath that we ask who is a hero, we should also ponder on who is a great Guyanese achiever. Certainly that question can easily be settled in areas of medicine, law, engineering, teaching, sports etc. JOF Haynes was a fantastic legal mind. Shiv Chanderpaul is a great Guyanese cricketer. When you step outside of these areas, the problem becomes nightmarish. I would be curious to see how the Stabroek News handles this aspect of the polemic, especially in the light of the pronouncement in one of its editorials of Rickey Singh being a great, Caribbean columnist (it didn’t say journalist but columnist).
What are the criteria to use when assessing Guyanese outside of the sciences and sports? The headaches are enormous. In my opinion, Rickey Singh is not a great Caribbean columnist, but someone who used his pen in support of one of the worst governments in these parts of the world.
The Stabroek News must situate Singh in a particular context. The Stabroek News is too important to Guyana for it to be put out of existence, but Singh’s government in Georgetown almost did that.
It is this writer’s opinion that then President Bharrat Jagdeo purposely pursued the Stabroek News with the intent of weakening it and eventually seeing its closure. In the eighteen months of relentless pressure by President Jagdeo on the Stabroek News, Mr. Singh’s Sunday columns have been in shameless endorsement of the Jagdeo regime.
Mr. Jagdeo’s twelve-year-old administration got Singh’s support during all that time. Can you conjure up a plausible intellectual argument for classifying such a media practitioner as a great Guyanese journalist?
I would argue, using all the concepts in political theory, that Dr. Compton Bourne, a Guyanese economist who is the recipient of this country’s highest award, The Order of Excellence, is not a great nationalist. When you apply the criteria, he would fail badly.
I worked three years with Bourne as a member of the Council of the University of Guyana while Bourne was its legal head, and I saw Bourne’s participation in the lowering of standards at UG and his acquiescence of the worst kind of political strangulation of a university by a government.
Was Laurie Lewis a great Guyanese achiever? I would have to disagree again. As a long serving security officer to the State of Guyana, his many accomplishments should be acknowledged. But the term, “great Guyanese achiever” may be asking too much. This writer has solid information on many egregious actions of Lewis that resulted in the denial of freedom to others and denial of justice to many citizens of Guyana.
I guess the debate will have no ending. We will see it the way we want to in our own subjective ways. We will continue to disagree on who is a Guyanese hero and a great Guyanese achiever.

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