IT will be recalled that Guyana attained republican status on February 23, 1970, four years after it became an Independent state on May 26, 1966. This is, indeed, a significant milestone, but it also provided us with an opportunity to reflect on the path we have traversed, and the trials and tribulations we experienced over the five decades or so since we became an Independent nation.

To say that we are today a better society would be an understatement. The mere fact of being an Independent nation, free from the dictates of an imperial power is enough to justify our enhanced status as a people and as a society. Gone are the days when policy decisions which impacted on the lives of Guyanese were made in Downing Street, London. Guyana, as a colony of Britain, was subjected to foreign rule. The British flag, the Union Jack, the National Anthem and Coat of Arms were not symbols of a Guyanese society, but symbols of a foreign power and domination. The Governor was Head of State and Head of Government. As Head of State, he represented the Queen. His boss was in London, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, later called the Secretary of State for the Commonwealth and Colonial Affairs.

Under Crown Colony status, the Governor and the Secretary of State were extremely powerful; they had powers of veto and certification, conferring on the Governor the power to object to any law passed by the colonial legislature. Guyana went through several stages of colonial domination until 1966, when the country became Independent, with the Premier becoming the Prime Minister, and the Governor became the Governor-General representing the British Queen as Head of State but no longer the Head of Government. Sir David Rose was Governor up to 1966, and, following his accidental death, Mr. Arthur Chung succeeded him as Governor-General, and then after the conferral of republican status in February 1970 became the Ceremonial President. Forbes Burnham became the Prime Minister, and later, in 1980, the Executive President with full powers.

It is important to draw some lessons from our past, if only to demonstrate what can go wrong when the norms of democracy and democratic rule are absent from the governance structure of the society, and while the role played by Britain in the granting of both Independence and Republican status, based on ideological and Cold War considerations, cannot be dismissed, it was the complete rupture of the democratic fabric by the Burnham regime during the post-Independence period that was responsible for the social and economic decline that the country experienced until the restoration of democratic rule on October 5, 1992.

But all of that is now history; we have moved on since, and Guyana, today, is a proud member of the Commonwealth, of which the British Monarch is still the head. But unlike colonial times, Guyana is now an equal member of the Commonwealth of Nations. We have now gone past the stage as a primary producer of raw materials for metropolitan consumption, and we are now an oil and gas-producing nation. And, even at a more fundamental level, we are a sovereign nation, and we owe allegiance to on other nation, large nor small.

For this we have every reason to celebrate, even though the celebrations this year, as in the previous year, is somewhat muted by the COVID-19 pandemic. What, however, cannot be broken is the will and resilience of the Guyanese people as we strive to build a strong, prosperous and united society as envisaged by President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali. The ‘One Guyana’ vision is both timely and necessary, especially at this moment of our history when there is that confluence of political, economic and cultural will.