A dark day in our Country’s history

Jul 06, 2019 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Today, 6th July, marks the anniversary of a dark day in our Country’s history.
On Monday, 6th July, 1964, a launch owned and operated by a known PNC Supporter, Norman Yacoob Chapman while plying its normal Georgetown – Wismar/Mackenzie route exploded in the vicinity of Hurudaia in the Demerara River
Forty-seven persons, including a pregnant woman, all of one group and known PNC supporters perished. I point no fingers, except some facts for the benefit of the forgetful old and the young.
The Constitutional Conference for Independence was held at Lancaster House, London, in October 1963. The three Leaders, Peter D’Aguiar, Dr. Jagan and Forbes Burnham could not agree on the main issues.
The PPP delegation did not agree with the PNC suggestion for a plebiscite to allow the people to decide, instead Dr. Jagan asked the British Colonial Secretary, Mr. Duncan Sandys to break the deadlock, stating in his own words, that he had great faith and confidence in the British sense of fair play and justice.
Reluctantly, and threatened with a further delay for Independence, the PNC and UF Leaders signed a document supporting Dr. Jagan’s request.
We know the result. Clearly Dr. Jagan and the PPP were unhappy, if not furious with the Sandys solution and return home promising, again, in his own words, a ‘hurricane of protest.’
G.A.W.U was also agitating in the sugar belt for recognition.
During the 25th May, 1964 there were serious eruptions in the Wismar/Christianburg, Mackenzie (now Linden) community. Over seventy-five percent (75%) of the Indo Guyanese were roughed up and forced to flee their homes and businesses.
What triggered this, were the murders, rape and arson in parts of the East Coast Demerara and West Coast Berbice, from where the majority of bauxite mine workers came. It was a terrible situation.
Shortly after, a top official from Freedom House promised a gift to the people at the Wismar/Christianburg area.
As we remember this anniversary, let us prevail upon our Leaders to avoid missteps of earlier days.
Let’s be reminded of the following wisdom:-
“And I can see no reason why anyone should suppose that in the future the same motifs already heard will not be sounding still …put to use by reasonable men to reasonable ends, or by madmen to nonsense and disaster.” – Joseph Campbell, Foreword to the Masks of God: Primitive Mythology, 1969
Just two days ago, I dispatched a correspondence, published in the Media of Thursday, July 4, 2019 appealing to our Leaders to put Guyana first. If I can put it another way, to display the highest level of sagacity and patriotism thereby overcoming what appears to be universal weakness.
Barbara Tuchman in the introduction to her book ‘The March of Folly: from Troy to Vietnam’ laments
“A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests. Mankind, it seems, makes a poorer performance of government than of almost any other human activity. In this sphere, wisdom, which may be defined as the exercise of judgement acting on experience, common sense and available information, is less operative and more frustrated than it should be.”
She then begs a question
“Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests? Why does intelligent mental process seem so often not to function?”
I hope that the young people of Guyana, irrespective of race, colour, creed, or station in life, would demand that our Leaders really put Guyana first, for if we mess up or do the sensible thing, it will be the kids in school and now leaving school who will be either the victims or the beneficiaries of our actions today.
I repeat, do not let the CCJ and the niceties of our Constitution take up any more of our time and resources, but rather concentrate on how the less than a million people, resident in Guyana, can make Guyana, Good, Glorious and a Giant among Nations.
As I dictate this letter, I learnt of Mrs. Patricia Abraham’s passing in Canada just a few weeks before her 99th birthday.
Mrs. Abraham was the wife of Alexander Arthur Abraham, who, with seven of their nine children, perished in a fire set to their home in Hadfield Street on the 12 of June, 1964. She somehow jumped through a window and was the only survivor. Two of the nine children were away at the time.
Recall, Arthur Abraham was at the top of the public service – Permanent Secretary, in the Office of the Premier (Dr. Jagan), Abraham was suspected of passing documents to the United Force Leader, Peter D’Aguiar and so, he was ‘promoted’ (SIC) from the Premier’s Office to the Ministry of Works.
Her passing closes another chapter in our troubled history.
On behalf of my wife and children, I offer sympathy to her family and relatives. May Her Soul Rest in Peace.
I end with the contention reiterated in Isaiah Berlin’s ‘Historical Inevitability’. The historian, Berlin maintains, cannot escape “that minimum degree of moral or psychological evaluation, which is necessarily involved in viewing human beings as creatures with purposes and motives (and not merely as casual factors in the procession of events).”
The old folks will say “put sense through our thick skulls to push out the nonsense.”
Hamilton Green

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