As the PNC continues its death spiral in the cat-fight to succeed their founder leader, let’s look at what a former PNC Ex-Co member – Dr Festus Brotherson – said. In a paper published by the Ivy League Stanford University he started with Burnham’s vaunted “foreign policy genius”: “The country’s foreign policy was not crafted over the years to serve the objective national interest. Rather, the overriding objective of Guyana’s authoritarian leadership was to do abroad what it had failed to do at home: i.e., to establish legitimacy. With this approach, Burham sought to follow the strategy outlined by Machiavelli, namely, to legitimize one’s regime by means of glorious foreign adventure or diplomatic success, which would whip up nationalist fervor on the one hand and stifle domestic opposition on the other, wringing grudging support from the latter in the process.” Now Norton and company know!!
On the domestic front, this quest for legitimacy also dictated Burnham’s policies: “Burnham’s resurrection of radical socialism was inspired by the opportunity which that ideology afforded to gain near-total authoritarian charge of the society, and to out-radicalize his Marxist rivals in his pursuit of legitimacy. He wedded himself to the exercise of authoritarian measures which socialism justifies. Repeatedly portraying the domestic situation as one of “peaceful revolution”, he explained away resort to coercion and arbitrary action as requisite “revolutionary tactics.” Imagine that!! With socialism dumped, will the PNC winner chose the authoritarian capitalism of Chairman Xi Jin Ping?!
Burnham’s increasingly radical turn teed off the US, but they couldn’t get rid of him because they saw Cheddi as “the worse of two evils”. But they still squeezed him: “In the wake of an informal, but effective, Western freeze on economic assistance to Guyana, trade and barter arrangements with communist nations increased significantly. Invariably, these countries took advantage of Guyana’s need to dump their inferior goods and flawed technology on the society, as in the case of a Chinese textile mill, Bulgarian telephones and radio communication equipment, Soviet cars, commercial aircraft and military helicopters, and Yugoslavian buses.” So is picking Xi’s Chinese way, out??
About the boasts on Burnham’s “creative policies”, this is what Brotherson wrote: “Burnham was always on the alert to adopt projects which his counterparts abroad had used to their own advantage in their own countries in hopes such strategies would prove equally successful in garnering personal support for him in Guyana. For example, following a state visit to Tanzania, Burnham announced the “Declaration of Sophia”, in which he introduced the controversial policy that the ruling party should be paramount over the government. This was no more than a thinly-disguised version of Julius Nyerere’s Arusha Declaration in that East African country.”
So, maybe next week’s PNC winner will adopt Trump’s MAGA??
…the ex-leader
Your Eyewitness was surprised David Granger hasn’t been selected as an “elder” to settle the Norton story. Jeez, the man only turned over his home to house the “Burnham Foundation” to keep Burnham’s legacy alive!! Your Eyewitness suspects it was chock-full of pics with Burnham who turned Guyana from a flourishing country to a poster child for poverty!! But that’s Burnham’s legacy, no??
Granger was also a protégé of Burnham –plucked straight out of QC in 1965 and sent off to Mons for training to form the core of Burnham’s new army!! Unlike others like Morgan, etc, Granger obviously showed quite early on that he was willing to toe Burnham’s line. Which is why he was made Head of the GDF in 1979 when Rodney was infiltrating it!!
But since there was some “bad blood” between Norton and the “sanctimonious gangster” when the latter vied for PNC leadership – with Vanessa Kissoon as Norton’s biggest defender! – Granger might’ve been seen as not exactly impartial!!
…cricketing hopes??
Your Eyewitness knows we’ve been knocked out of the World Cup!! But in looking over our performance over the course – he feels there are some rays of hope for our future. This last game could’ve gone either way!
