The Bertram Collins College: Philosophical failure of Jagan, Burnham, PNC, PPP

Mar 01, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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The Bertram Collins College is in the news in a controversial way. The accusation is that the college’s intake is skewed in favour of African public servants. Is that so? The answer is yes. But is there context to that answer. The answer is yes. But to explain that context, one has to go back to the 1957 split between the two iconic anti-colonial fighters – Jagan and Burnham.
In going back, we will see the great Burnham was a philosophical failure. The great Jagan was an equal, philosophically, and their inability and incapacity to reach over the fence to the other side led us to the racial cul-de-sac we are now in. The parties and leaders they have left behind cannot get out of the ethnic labyrinth that the founding fathers were imprisoned in.
Before we journey into history and current sociology, a word about the principal of the college, Lawrence Paul. He has invited me to lecture to the students. Paul knows my philosophical approach to life. He was my student at UG. He did the course on philosophy with me in which we had to examine the thoughts of all the great philosophers, from Socrates in ancient Athens long before the birth of Christianity right up to the 20th century with Jean Paul Sartre.
Paul knows what I will say to those students. I will tell them that Burnham and Jagan were never racist, couldn’t be bothered about being ethnically biased, but sadly found themselves relying on ethnic constituencies in which they wanted to get out, but couldn’t, because they lacked the capacity to think in innovative ways in philosophical terms.
When the PPP split, both Jagan and Burnham found support in large ethnic sections of Guyana. Then Jagan became Premier. He was unable to devise unique pathways to attract the urban proletariat. Burnham as opposition leader felt comfortable with his support base of African Guyanese. Burnham became head of government in 1964. Burnham gave up on trying to win Indians, because he felt they were tied to the umbilical cord of Jagan. Jagan, as opposition leader, couldn’t devise genuine ways of attracting the African urban proletariat, even though Jagan was a devout embracer of class politics.
So Guyana evolved with an Indian peasantry, Indian landed class, an Indian petty bourgeoisie, an intellectual African middle class, a professional class of African state workers, and a predominantly urban African proletariat. Guyana since Independence has been a plural society.
Burnham never wooed the Indians to come over to the public service. They remained ensconced in business activities. Presidents Cheddi Jagan, Janet Jagan, Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar, never thought of birthing financial institutions to create a landed African middle class and a nascent African petty bourgeoisie.
The failure of the PNC and PPP governments to invent ideas and policies to change the plural society has left us today with the two major races occupying different economic spheres of existence.
I taught at UG for 26 consecutive years. In the programmes of banking, marketing, accounting, business management, Indian applicants prevailed. In history, sociology, literature, social work, public management, African students dominated. The reality is that one set of people apply to the police force, public service and the army, while another set goes for banking, business investments, etc.
We come now to the Bertram Collins College. It is not sufficient for the college to say a high percentage of African applicants responded. It was not sufficient for successive PPP governments to conclude that Africans prefer white collar state jobs. Innovative thinking had to be devised by PPP and PNC administrators to reach out.
My suggestion for the future of this country is that whoever is in office needs to pursue one fundamental pathway – make an extraordinary effort to change the permanency of the sociological roles of Indians and Africans. Finance should be provided for African Guyanese to create an entrepreneurial class. Indians must be given incentives (ASAP) to join the state security forces (including prison and fire), and the public service.
I would suggest to Lawrence Paul that he does affirmative action in the college. Set aside a quota for Indians and Amerindians. Give them incentives. What is wrong with that? The answer is nothing and Guyana wins handsomely.
Charges of racism will continue, because the plural society encourages it. And the plural society is being kept alive by PPP and PNC leaders who are philosophically bankrupt. The time is long overdue for a wholesome African petty bourgeoisie and a graphic presence of Indians in the entire state sector. As Marvin Gaye sang in his humongous hit, “let’s get it on.”

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