Today marks the 40th Anniversary of our country’s Republican Status and like any 40th birthday of an individual we as a nation should feel proud and happy to have achieved this significant milestone. On February 23, 1970 we became a proud Republic with Mr. L. F. S Burnham as Prime Minister and our first President being Mr. Arthur Chung who was a titular Head of State and held no executive authority or power. This occurred four years after we achieved political independence on May 26, 1966.
As the old adage advises “life begins at forty” perhaps this is the beginning of life for us as a nation and therefore we will strive to put our past political and other differences and reflect on our mistakes and try to correct them so as to forge a developmental path that would truly transform our nation into a great one-a goal which every patriot should be working towards.
Unlike some countries we did not become a Republic immediately after achieving political independence. In our case the real struggle was for political independence and becoming a Republic was merely a further consolidation or extension of our political and territorial sovereignty.
But becoming an independent state was not easy, on the contrary it came after a long, hard, bitter, determined and indomitable struggle initiated and led by some magnificent, patriotic and courageous personalities. Unfortunately, not many of those leaders are around today.
In the 1930s there were some initial agitation for independence by some political and labour leaders, one of whom was our father of trade unionism and National Hero Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow but at that there was no real crystallised or consolidated political movement for independence.
The truly organised and political movement for independence actually began with the return of Dr. Cheddi Jagan from his studies in the US in the 1940s. He along with his wife, Janet Jagan and other leaders formed the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) who made it clear that their goal was independence and social justice and economic progress. This movement eventually was transformed into the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in January 1950 and from thereon the independence struggle was intensified and joined by other leaders such as L.F. S Burnham and several others including our national poet Martin Carter, Boysie Ramkarran and a list too numerous to mention here.
In the course of that painstaking and bitter struggle for independence a very important victory was won and that is elections in 1953 was held under Universal Adult Suffrage for the first time in 1953 as well as having internal self government. But this victory was marred by the suspension of the constitution and the removal of the victorious PPP government after being in office for only 133 days. The British colonial government then took charge and became vicious jailing and detaining several political leaders. Perhaps this was the most pivotal event on our future political developments and was a result of the Cold War hysteria in which the British and the US used the “communist bogeyman” to remove the elected PPP government as they did in other countries.
These events led to the unfortunate and permanent crack in the political movement which saw the two most charismatic political leaders, Dr. Cheddi Jagan and L.F.S Burnham going their separate ways which led to the latter forming his own party the People’s National Congress (PNC). From then on the PPP went on to win the 1957, 1961 and 1964 elections. However, with respect to the latter it did not win an outright majority, as such through British and American collaboration to keep the PPP out of government a PNC /United Force coalition government was forced. During 1957 to 1964 the struggle for independence intensified but between 1962 and 1964 the country was marred by political aimed at destabilising and removal of the PPP government.
Political independence was granted eventually two years after and four years later we became a Republic.
Today forty years after, despite the formidable challenges and difficulties, we have made significant improvements and can boast self sufficiency in food production, massive improvements in health care, delivery of education, housing development, infrastructure, a growing economy and the standard of living. But undoubtedly there are many stones that are still unturned as well as many roads to walk and surely with the zeal resilience of our wonderful people we shall get there.
So as we celebrate our achievements and revel on this Mashramani occasion, at forty we should reflect on our past not to harp on it but simply to see our mistakes and avoid repeating them, and pledge towards working tirelessly to achieve that wonderful goal of making this country a prosperous and united one and fully realise our aspiration of “one People, One Nation, One Destiny.