Desmond Hoyte Part 2: I have been accused of deception

Feb 15, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I had lunch the other day with Ivan Bentham of the youth arm of the AFC, and Michael Carrington, of that party’s senior leadership, at a restaurant that has mountains of memories for me. When I become a homeless man, I will take up residence outside of Idiho Restaurant, which is the southern wing of Demico at Stabroek Market Square.
Idiho Restaurant has many deep memories for me that maybe in Freudian ways explain why I am drawn to it. I am normally there one night of every week; sometimes it is more than one night. It was at Idiho late an evening, while devouring a sundae, that Vincent Britton of the secretariat of the Ministry of National Development came up to me and said, “The Comrade Leader would like to see you.” I had just won the President’s Medal at UG and President Burnham wanted to see me.
I will refrain from telling readers how I reacted to Vincent’s invitation, but you can put it down to the misplaced exuberance and consistent stupidity of youth (still fond of Vincent; hear he still visits Guyana) but I turned it down. I really didn’t have time for Burnham’s bull.
I know he would have painted a glorious record of his achievements and would have offered me a position. Burnham was extremely livid at me for rejecting his hand and he never forgave me. Shortly after, he banned me from working and repeated that edict when I came home in 1984. Despite that personal acidity with Burnham, I still think he was a fierce nationalist who did good for Guyana (don’t forget he did bad too).
It was at Idiho that I limed with my girlfriend, Janet, before we got married. Most afternoons after I picked her up from work from the Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation in Kingston, we could be found at Idiho. Back to lunch with Bentham and Carrington. This pretty young lady, with utter brazenness, came to our table, sat uninvited, and with a smile broader than the three great rivers of Guyana, said I am a deceptive person.
Her explanation was that she read where I had written that I would offer Lisa Ramotar, the President’s daughter, examples of where Guyanese were denied employment, and that her father’s government was directly involved. Still retaining her gargantuan smile, she said since then she has been buying the KN to see the examples.
Ivan Bentham and Michael Carrington knew she was kidding, and their smiles were as large as hers.
She was right. I never followed up on that statement. I concede I was deceptive to not follow-up. But I will. Her nice accusation reminded me of two reminders I received. On Thursday June 19, 2014, I published the following column; “Desmond Hoyte was one of the best leaders of the post-colonial world: Part 1.” I never got down to part 2 after eight months.
I need to write part 2; I owe it to those two persons who reminded me. Here now is part two, even though it is an abbreviated analysis. Hoyte will remain a giant in the Third World because he was endowed with a rare leadership quality – the capacity to take high risk. The great singer/social activist, Joan Baez, said this was the weakness she found in President Obama; he is not a risk-taker.
The presidency of Hoyte was characterized by phenomenal transformational pathways and high risk-taking. Perhaps in the area of ethnic reconciliation, Hoyte stands out in the Third World. Hoyte made overtures to the Indian community that were only marred by his omission of the Indian rural proletariat. I believe had he not lost power, he would have reaped extensive profits in the investment of ethnic reconciliation.
Perhaps his great gamble, for which he should find a place in any textbook on comparative politics, was his transformation of the state to effect his twin policy of perestroika and abertura (the latter is the Spanish word Latin social scientists used to refer to democratic opening). Hoyte took huge risks in demobilizing the Burnhamite state, so that he could pursue the democratic transformation of Guyana.
It is not that he did not like the Burnhamite apparatchiks he inherited in 1985 when Burnham died. Hoyte felt that these people were steeped in primitive ways, had ancient loyalties and old animosities. They would have undermined his policy of changing the guards. For example, there was no way Elvin Mc David would have allowed Hoyte to bring back capitalism and restore liberal constitutionalism.
For me, Hoyte remains the greatest leader in the history of this country, outside of the slave rebellions of 1763 and 1823. He is a Guyanese hero.

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Desmond Hoyte Part 2: I have been accused of deception

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