Rodney on the Burnham dictatorship

Jun 16, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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In yesterday’s column, we examined Rodney’s characterization of dictatorship in general. In this continuation, we look at Walter Rodney’s assessment of the peculiarities of the Burnham dictatorship.
The first peculiarity of the Burnham dictatorship, according to Rodney, was that it disguised itself as a democracy. Burnham had come to power democratically in 1964 but like other dictators, he subverted the democratic process while assuming a pretense of democratic legitimacy.
The second peculiarity was the cultivation of a cult of personality to make himself appear like a demi-God. As mentioned yesterday, he pasted his picture on children’s exercise books and dressed in a General’s uniform.
Rodney observed that one Hindu Pandit had gone as far as to state that Burnham was the reincarnation of Lord Krishna. According to Rodney, when Burnham could not pretend that he was the greatest, he attached himself shamelessly to the shirt-tails of those who had proven their greatness in one field or another- -ranging from Fidel Castro to Mohammad Ali.
The third peculiarity of the Burnham dictatorship was its highly personalized nature. Rodney pointed out that Burnham and his cronies made it their business to hire and fire. They interfered with major management decisions and they intervened in the most trivial affairs.
The ruling clique, he observed, was vindictive with regard to businessmen applying for licences for imports controlled by the Government and could personally stop a soldier from going on leave, prevent a junior clerk from getting a promotion, to victimize a casual worker for failing to ‘toe the line’.
“Decisions as to who to prosecute in the courts should normally be made by the Director of Public Prosecutions. Many of these decisions were made by the dictator himself in Guyana and were influenced not by the well-being of the state but by personal spite.”
Rodney recalled that, “many beautiful ideas have suffered from the Burnham Touch -socialism, cooperatives, free education, nationalisation, solidarity with Afro-Americans, support for freedom fighters. Burnham tried to intervene personally in everything – from road building to the administration of sports. He has touched a great deal in Guyana. Many formerly decent Guyanese are walking around doing dirty things or compromising with the evil of dictatorship. They have been touched.”
The fourth peculiarity was the dictatorship’s violations of human rights. Burnham ended press freedom by nationalizing radio and the private daily newspapers. The opposition press, according to Rodney, was restricted. The Mirror newspaper, for example, was suffocated by denying it the right to newsprint. Printing equipment from other small parties and even from a trade union were seized.
The oppression extended to State-owned media with many press and radio journalists losing their independence and professionalism.
According to Rodney, “Elections have not been abolished; instead they have been rigged in such a way as to become a complete mockery of the most fundamental of rights -the right to self-determination and free choice of one’s government. The rigged elections of 1968 and 1973 and the amazing referendum fraud of July 1978 all indicate that Guyanese people have not chosen the PNC clique.”
Rodney pointed to Burnham’s assault on freedom of assembly. “Peaceful pickets and gatherings without loudspeakers have been broken up with tear gas and baton charges. In this way, the dictatorship felt that it was gaining a physical victory but the people were moving forward in their understanding. No one could have pretended that our rulers protected the freedom of assembly.”
The fifth peculiarity was Burnham’s use of trickery. According to Rodney, Burnham converted loyalty to the state to loyalty to personal loyalty to himself. He recalled the role, which the uniformed services played in stealing the rights of the Guyanese people and in doing the dirty work of the dictatorship. Many decent Guyanese, he said, were tricked into doing wrong things, believing that these deeds were in their own interests. As striking workers found out, after the trickery came victimization.
The sixth peculiarity, which strengthened the hand of Burnham was the principle of ‘paramountcy’, which gave Burnham and his party domination over Parliament, the Courts, the Press and the State. Burnham himself, he noted, was even paramount over his own party.
The seventh peculiarity of the Burnham dictatorship was its use of violence and propaganda. He pointed to the PNC state practice of using thugs, dismissals and even resorting to murder. Propaganda was used to break inter-racial solidarity.
The full text of Rodney’s speech – People’s power, no dictator, is available online. It should be compulsory reading for Guyanese who wish to avoid going down the road, which Guyana took fifty years ago in 1968.

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