I interviewed Hamilton Green for publication twice. I will never ever do that again. As a practicing social scientist with space in the media, my requirement is to read what is said in and about Guyana.
But I have made Green an exception. I do not read what Green writes because I feel that Green is a departure from human ordinariness.

For me, Green is a politician beyond redemption. My first interview was published in the Kaieteur News of Monday, October 16, 2017. Three aspects of that interview pierced my heart and I wondered why Guyana was so unfortunate to have a man with such enormous power for almost three decades.

First, he justified President Burnham not allowing Walter Rodney a job at UG. He said he, Hamilton Green, got word from top Tanzanian officials to stop Rodney from coming to Guyana because he was going to create trouble. So Green and Burnham arrogated to themselves the authority to decide the rights of Guyanese citizens. And do not forget, this decision was one year after the 1973 rigged election.

Secondly, he said he was aware from information, provided by state intelligence, that WPA activist, Ohene Koama had guns in the car trunk. These are his exact words in the interview: “We were waiting for him.” From his words, it appeared that the decision was made to shoot Koama. He was shot and killed by the police outside his home.

Thirdly, at the end of the interview, I asked Green if he had any regrets during his long reign of power, he said, “none whatsoever.” The Monday morning when the newspaper came out, Andaiye rang me to say how incredible she found that attitude of Green. The interview was conducted in the study of Green‘s home and when he uttered those words, I got goose bumps.

Green is in the news for his remarks about the need to rig future elections to keep the PPP out of power. But his controversy has obfuscated the massive irony of the event out of which came Green’s words. The occasion was the 101 birth anniversary of Forbes Burnham observed by the Forbes Burnham Foundation headed by Vincent Alexander.

For the event, a number of speakers presented blueprints for the democratisation of Guyana. These presentations made no mention of Burnham’s role in the destruction of post-Independence democracy and Walter Rodney’s ultimate sacrifice in trying to stop the further erosion of democracy under Burnham.

Was it not a huge irony, maybe the word “colossal” is more appropriate in that a blueprint for democracy came from within the walls of an organisation named the Burnham Foundation? Guyana lost its immediate post-colonial stability, removed the right of people to vote for their leaders and had some of its freedom fighters murdered during the reign of Forbes Burnham.

This descent into autocracy came about because the foundation of Burnham’s psyche rested on narcissism, omnipotence and messianic cultism. Armed with visionary zeal on how to transform a dilapidated economy wrecked by sugar plunder by the British empire, Burnham set out on a one-man journey of transformation that had no place for democratic values, rule of law, rights and liberties and recognition and tolerance for opposition parties.

For Burnham, these were humbugs in building the new Guyanese and the new nation. The psychic foundation of Burnham did not allow for a united post-colonial society where the transition from colonial brainwashing and colonial economy to self-reliance and resource ownership would be pursued through what Bob Marley referred to as “one love.”

There was no “one love” in the building of a new society in Guyana after 1966. It was Burnham’s love only. This explains the obsession with purple – the colour of the Roman emperors, the need to speak to the masses from the balcony of the Bank of Guyana, riding horseback at Hope estate unto the pathway of workers and seeing the masses scramble for safety, riding horseback in south Georgetown with high top purple boots and seeing the masses running toward you for scare cigarettes, and smoking Cuban cigars at mass games while school children belt out the words, “follow de leadah” in rhythmic style.
This constituted the psychic foundation of Burnham.

His sister, Jesse, wrote her little booklet and warned Guyanese about this psychic foundation but global events conspired to allow this psychic foundation to roam freely. At the Burnham Foundation event, Hamilton Green used the words, “devil”, “bastard”, and “demon” to describe the PPP leaders. Those were the very words Walter Rodney employed to describe Burnham.

I was told by the closest comrade Burnham had, Elvin Mc David, that after the assassination of Rodney, Burnham stopped listening to Marley. Burnham ran from a particular set of Marley’s lyrics which I leave with you below.
“How long shall they kill our prophets?
While we stand aside and look
Some say it’s just a part of it
We’ve got to fulfill the book”