I had and have a problem with Burnham over my wife and mother

AUGUST 10, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

I am a trained historian. I ask for your understanding of my chauvinism when I note that I have undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in history. The academic work for those degrees was on Guyanese history. I would ask that you give me some credit for knowing a little bit of my country’s past. I am amused when I hear descriptions of Forbes Burnham as the most visionary, learned and exemplary leader of the Caribbean and there is not even a whisper of at least one of the countless items on his autocratic mind. I am amused when I hear about Cheddi Jagan being the founder father of the nation who fought the colonials courageously and not one word of how narrow-minded Jagan was. My attitude to Burnham and Jagan is contained in the following lyrics from the theme song of the Muhammed Ali biopic, “the Greatest” “Everybody searching for a hero People need someone to look up to I never found anyone to fulfill my needs A lonely place to be So I learned to depend on me” Last week marked the death anniversary of Burnham. At the event the praise for his greatness reached the skies. In March next year, the PPP faithfuls will gather at Babu Jaan in Port Morant and Guyanese will hear of the phenomenal greatness of Jagan. When the death anniversary of these two superb (they were definitely superb figures) men comes around, I am always amused but there are large penetrations of irritation inside my mind. Do the people who heap praise on Burnham and Jagan ever think of the madness they hurled at their victims? I once asked one of Guyana’s most prominent journalists who is African Guyanese and has never even remotely supported the PPP and the PPP Government what he thought of Burnham. There was no anger in his face but he was laughing. He said his uncle told him of the Burnham horror show at Hope Estate where public servants were coerced to work on weekends, weeding among other chores (you were dismissed if you refused) and Burnham would appear on horse back and when he came in your direction, your only escape route was to jump into the trench. I don’t have a problem with the magnificent leader Burnham was. Such fantastic nationalist leadership cannot be denied and Guyanese however young must be educated to know that Burnham was one of the country’s fine, dedicated patriotic leaders. But he had a very negative side which all young Guyanese will know a little about with the ubiquitous talk the past twenty years of his 1980 constitution. I experienced Burnham’s negative side after I returned to Guyana from serving the Maurice Bishop Government in Grenada. Burnham instituted a work-ban on me as he did in 1978 after I graduated from UG and I had to leave. But why extend your autocratic mind to my wife? She had nothing to do with my politics. Burnham didn’t even know her because I married her and left Guyana immediately. Why bring people’s family into your authoritarian nonsense? Why do tyrannical leaders do this nonsense? Jagdeo did it too. He victimized my wife at GOINVEST. I came back to Guyana and couldn’t find a job. I was the only one of seven siblings who went beyond high school. My mom couldn’t see me work in my own country and she died shortly after my return. I am not sure I could forgive Burnham for what he did to my mom and wife. It is easy to praise a leader but do we spare a thought for his victims? How would we feel when we hear Indian parents in the Corentyne teaching their young ones to admire Jagdeo as Guyana’s best president? Perhaps they are doing that as I write. The late Navin Chandarpal once remarked that Jagdeo was Guyana’s best president. That is unimaginable nonsense. He was Guyana’s most complete devil. There continues to be praise even by learned Guyanese who are pretty young of Cheddi Jagan and what a saint he was. Cheddi Jagan mirrors Forbes Burnham. Both were indomitable fighters. Both were narrow-minded politicians who were ensconced in the politics of ethnic preservation and authoritarian insecurity. Someone has to write a book and contextualize Burnham and Jagan where we can see their greatness and their immense faults. But we must avoid the caricature of seeing Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan as pure magic. This is false history. This is the mis- educating of a nation. When we assess history we must give equal weight to the leader’s achievements and the pain of his victims.