THREE weeks ago, the PNC issued a statement that speaks to the party fixing the image of its founder, former President Forbes Burnham.
The declaration went on to say that it is necessary to rehabilitate Burnham’s image because of the criticisms that have been wrongly levelled at him.
If ever there was an impossible task then this is one. To rehabilitate the record of Burnham is not an improbable venture. For this to succeed it depends on what title you give the programme — If it is titled:
“The Accomplishments of Forbes Burnham” and it begins and ends there, then the study would have achieved its purpose.
But to fix Burnham’s image and situate him among the pantheons of great leaders, then that research paper when completed will become a study in comicality and propagandistic aridity. It is an effortless task to do a study of Burnham’s accomplishments. The man had vision and that vision gave Guyana, the NIS; the Harbour Bridge; a large UG campus at Turkeyen; the Cyril Potter’s College of Education, just to name a few.
If the PNC is going to go beyond his achievements and do a positive interpretation of his legacy within a holistic context, then that project will fail and people will laugh at it because Forbes Burnhan was a man who had deeply embedded instincts of totalitarianism.
It is an act of asininity to do a publication of him as an effort to shape his leadership as a great Guyanese statesman. Burnham was both visionary and dictatorial, both a maverick and a vicious, vindictive, authoritarian head of state
If the rehabilitation programme is going to be done while Aubrey Norton is the PNC’s leader, then the PNC will find itself facing national ridicule. Norton is on record as saying that the PPP tampered with both the 2020 and 2025 general elections.
How then his party is going to publish Burnham’s legacy without a huge part devoted to Burnham rigging every election from 1968 until his death in 1985? And the fraud includes a rigged referendum in 1978.
If the leader of the PNC says that the PPP tampered with the 2020 and 2025 general and regional elections and refuses to acknowledging that Burnham came to power from 1968 onward through conspiratorial rigging of elections, then the rehabilitation effort will be self-defeating for the PNC.
How can the PNC accuse the PPP of illegal assumption of state power and yet tell Guyanese that their founder-leader, Forbes Burnham, was not a recipient of illegal state power through wide-spread rigging? Instead of rehabilitating Burnham, that research is going to make Guyanese criticise even more willingly to pulverise Burnham’s legacy.
Fixing Burnham’s image will generate extensive curiosity in both Guyana and outside of Guyana. Every Guyanese on Planet Earth is going to read that publication, because they want to see if the horrific faults of Burnham will be included.
How is the PNC going to treat the fraudulent election of 1968, 1973 and 1980, and the barefaced tampering with the 1978 referendum? How is the PNC going to treat with the murder of Walter Rodney?
Equally important is how the PNC going to fix Burnham’s record within the context of Rodney’s popularity.
Burnham ruled from 1964 to 1985. Ten years into Burnham’s stewardship, Rodney was able to dissolve Burnham’s credentials. In fewer than 10 years of power, Burnham’s star began to fade. Rodney came home in 1974 but by 1970, Burnham had become unpopular.
One has to understand that Rodney became a cult figure among the urban African proletariat because he was able to expand his activism, because of the rising resentment of Burnham by the nation.
It must be emphasised that Rodney did not come in 1974 and immediately began to rally the Guyanese people to his cause. When Rodney came, he met a country that was dissatisfied with the nature of Burnham’s rule and Rodney tapped into that alienation of the masses.
If Burnham was such a phenomenal performer, how come his star began to fade six years into his rule from 1964 to 1970? The fact is that his visionary pathways did not cushion him from the deep chagrin of the masses.
People welcomed the Demerara Harbour Bridge and other exciting achievements of Burnham, but these things did not obfuscate the pervasive negative perception the Guyanese people had of him.
The WPA became an overnight sensation because the nation resented the rule of Forbes Burnham.
The Commission of Inquiry into Rodney’s assassination had some compelling testimonies that included how Rodney established deep contacts with the police and the army. How the PNC is going to redo the image of Burnham is one that anyone can bet on and win. Burnham’s legacy cannot be rehabilitated.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
