The 1960s Mayhem

Aug 24, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Unfortunately, this reader is not privy to the agenda discussed at the National Economic Forum (reported on by Stabroek News August 16, 2013); but one couldn’t help being intrigued with some of the remarks attributed to the Minister ‘with responsibility for security within its (Guyana) borders’.
Again, while uncertain of the generational ages of the groups of participants referred to, one could only wonder who amongst them pondered on the relevance (and context) of ‘mayhem’ adverted to, in the pre-independence period of more than 50 years ago. As correctly advised therefore by the Minister, ‘if one were to talk about lawlessness in Guyana, as it relates to public security; they would have to delve into the history books,’ assuming of course these are available. Interested participants, as well as attentive journalists, should be encouraged to verify, for example, (from archival papers kept at the National Library) those parts (and not all) of Water Street that were destroyed by ‘fire and riots’; as well as the political dynamics which obtained in the specific years referred to. Further, the concentration on the urban conflagration may provide the under-informed with a somewhat distorted perspective.
Nineteen sixty-four was the climactic year of three years of industry-wide strikes, this time accompanied by the burning of cane fields, and some houses. What evolved into a national strike was attributed to the reaction of the PPP to the UK’s Colonial Office’s decision to a low Proportional Representation in the upcoming General Elections. Their leader Cheddi Jagan had lost ground, and face.
One resort to what history there may be is to Clem Seecharan’s well researched book, titled “Sweetening Bitter Sugar” in which he records the following:
“Jagan’s own Party’s newspaper was not charitable either. When he agreed to the imposition, Mirror had asked caustically: ‘Why this admission of Guianese inferiority, and why the supine and humiliating acceptance of white supremacy, and acknowledgement of a master race?… We… hope that all is not irretrievably lost. And that out of this ignominious moral capitulation may yet be carved splendid victory.’ When the Sandys decision was delivered, the paper sought solace in philosophical reflections, which they commended to an innocent Jagan:
“In this hour of travail he must find the balm of consolation in the philosophical sayings and practical maxims which, through the centuries, have served to stimulate man’s interest for good … ‘Sweet are the uses of adversity’; ‘I am the master of my faith, I am the captain of my soul’; ‘A man’s reach must exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?’; and ‘The menace of the years finds, and shall find me unafraid’.”
To be brief, the following statistics released by the BG Sugar Producers’ Association at the time, speak for themselves.
16th Feb. – $700,000 worth of sugar from the Berbice and Demerara Estates lost through arson
24th Feb. – Arson to three Sugar Estates (104 acres) total damage nearly $1m
26th Mar. – 190 acres of cane valued more than $200,000 burnt on Berbice Estates
6th April – 279 acres of cane on the East Coast burnt, valued $153,000
8th April – 92 acres of cane burnt on the East Coast – 2,000 acres approximately burnt
since sugar dispute began 57 days ago, losses being $2.5m
17th July – Arsonists burnt $.25m cane at Enterprise
26th July – GAWU called off strike
Note too that 1964 was also the year of the bombing of the launch Son Chapman in the Upper Demerara River.
But all the above is substantively irrelevant as it constitutes a mis-comparison with ‘normal crime’ – robbery, murder, and domestic violence, violence in schools, amongst other indicators of today’s normalcy.
The hyperbole must have been distracting (if not delusional) when reference was made to ‘mass migration’ the fact of which no one needs to be convinced. More worrying however, must be the ‘mass remigration’ of deportees from North America.
What appears to be carefully excised from the reported recital is the more recent phenomenon of drugs, with its implications for security being so significant that it required, and still invites, international, and particularly, US intervention.
For certain the Forum’s Workshops would need to revert to more accurate records in order to inform their perspectives in their professional development of, a coherent strategic plan that any future administration could implement.
But in the final analysis, who would dispute that corruption which is so topical a debate, is a significant factor in a society’s destabilisation; along with the emasculation of the efficacy of the security forces.
EB John

 

 

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