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An open letter
Dear President Burnham,
When you died in 1985 a beleaguered, downtrodden, malnourished and poverty stricken nation breathed a collective sigh of relief, hoping and believing then that finally it was good riddance to very, very bad rubbish.
Now you are back…. you have changed your name but it is still seven letters long. Your hair is not as black as it was before neither are you as fat as you were back then, and even though you have changed your colour from purple to green and has tinkered with your modus operandi I know for sure that you are back, and with that knowledge the painful memories of your first sojourn here are returning and they are as fresh, (and frightening), as they were back then.
Back then the policies you implemented, the decisions you made and the manner in which you governed wreaked havoc on our nation. Democracy was dead, a dictatorship was alive and fear stalked the land. If what you did then was wrong then by no stretch of the imagination can what you are doing now be considered right.
I am only too aware, Mr. President, that ordinary people will only do the right thing when it is the easiest thing for them to do and that great people will always do the right thing when it is the right and proper thing to do. How you would like to be remembered this time around is entirely up to you but for now the signs (and the realities) are ominous (and harsh and uninspiring).
Back then it took you all of 21 years to complete your transformation from a brilliant and charismatic leader into a despotic tyrant. This time around it’s like the nation is being “rewound on fast forward” to the early 1980’s. In less than three years it’s déjà vu.
Back then you used the United Force led by Peter D’Aguair to oust the PPP government led by Cheddie Jagan out of office. This time around same stroke (though different folks), same result but in using the AFC and the smaller parties in the APNU you have proven to be smarter and wiser than you were the first time around.
In choosing to coalesce with the AFC in order to achieve your desired result you now have in your clutches a bunch of opportunists who do not understand how coalition governments work.
D’Aguair to his credit had higher levels of testosterone. Back then an unsuspecting nation learnt of Jim Jones and the People’s Temple after the fact, now we are learning of ExxonMobil and its crappy contract in similar way. Back then you had your image placed on exercise books, now its hundreds of feet higher… it’s plastered on kites.
Back then you had Rabbi Washington and members of the House of Israel go after the political opposition, now it seems as though SARU and SOCU are being made to do the same. Back then your mantra was “feed, clothe and house the nation “, now it’s “buses, boots and boats”.
Back then you spited Indo Guyanese by banning flour, potato, split peas etc, now you put sugar workers out of work by closing sugar estates. Please don’t get me wrong, for as well intentioned the thinking behind the decisions to ban then were, and to close now may be, both are perceived as anti Indian. Perception, Mr President, is everything.
Back then dissident voices were silenced, now attempts are made to shut up Lincoln Lewis and David Hinds. Back then mass games were a part of the school curriculum, now the ” mass games “, (for want of a better term ), that are being played out on a weekly basis by your administration have given rise to mass dissatisfaction, mass discontent, mass suspicion, mass disapproval, mass criticism, mass displeasure, mass discomfiture, mass distrust, mass disdain, mass disillusionment and mass disbelief. Back then you handpicked Harry Bollers as your chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, now you have unilaterally appointed James Patterson to the same position.
Back then you rode tall in a saddle, straddling a horse whilst you trampled your nation. Now even as you continue to trample on the sense and sensibilities of your nation, there is no way I am missing the fact that you have traded that horse for a highly paid but inexplicably dumb jackass…there is no prize for guessing the name of that jackass.
Respectfully yours,
Reginald Sookram.
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