…Former President Granger on Burnham’s 35th death anniversary

THE People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R), on Thursday observed the 35th death anniversary of Guyana’s first Executive President Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham at a small wreath-laying ceremony hosted at the mausoleum in the Botanical Gardens where the late President is laid.

In key remarks former President David Granger, Leader of the PNC/R, said that Burnham was a visionary leader who set the Guyanese nation on the right path towards development.
“Forbes Burnham initiated a transformative phase which, in retrospect, could be deemed a ‘decade of development,’ from 1965 to 1975. He encouraged self-reliance to stimulate local and village ingenuity and self-employment. He established economic enterprises and institutions for the economic empowerment of Guyanese,” he stated.
Granger said that for Burnham, political independence was the gateway to the objective of economic independence; he also highlighted the efforts of the late President to eradicate poverty and inequality through education.

He noted that Burnham made Guyana a Cooperative Republic, as the cooperative movement was launched to drive the development of villages; many of these villages suffered from poor infrastructure and self-help initiatives were organised to promote domestic development.

Burnham also pushed for alternative technologies to be introduced as a means of promoting the emergence of cottage and small and medium-sized enterprises, which were essential to empowering poor households, boosting village economies and reducing rural poverty.

Meanwhile, the late President also placed focus on cooperative financial institutions such as the Guyana Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank, the Guyana Mortgage Finance Bank, the Guyana National Cooperative Bank and the Guyana Cooperative Insurance Service. These, the PNCR Leader said, helped to mobilise capital and provide financial services for economic development.

“Forbes Burnham died 35 years ago on August 6, 1985, at the age of only 62 years. His ideals are not dead. His ideas on economic independence are as alive today as they were 50 years ago when they flourished. It was my proud duty, on January 1 this year to launch the ‘Decade of Development, 2020-2029,’ not as an imitation but, rather, as a continuation of our founder-leader’s work and a realisation of his vision for a prosperous nation. We, the heirs and successors, honour Forbes Burnham’s service to this nation. We recommit to the perpetuation of his legacy of economic emancipation and empowerment,” he pledged.