Yesterday was the 38th anniversary of the death of Forbes Burnham, who had been maneuvered into office through fiddled constitutional arrangements as part of the plot to oust the PPP from office. Incapable of agglomerating a democratic majority, he rigged elections between 1968 and 1980 to establish a dictatorship that remains his enduring legacy. From the attempt of his acolyte David Granger to blatantly rig the 2020 elections, it is evident that there remains in the PNC a stubborn willingness to subvert the democratic process against which the Guyanese body politic must be inoculated. Knowledge of the Burnhamite Dictatorship can help in that process and we present excerpts from the inimitable academic Walter Rodney who not only opposed but analyzed the dictatorship before he was assassinated through the machinations of Burnham.
“The first peculiarity is that the Burnham dictatorship has masked and camouflaged itself. It would prefer that its vices be hidden from the public…(It) presents itself as its own opposite; that is to say, it presents itself as a democracy. This pattern has been determined by the manner in which Burnham achieved political power. Some dictators seize power by violence, as frequently happened in Latin America. Occasionally, a dictator can arrive on the scene as part of an electoral process before taking the steps of brazenly undermining the self-same electoral system. This was the case with Hitler who subverted German bourgeois democracy in the 1930s. Burnham has taken a similar road to power, subverting the democratic system of which he was a part in 1953.
“Hitler’s megalomania was backed by the powerful German economy and the might of the German army. Burnham’s megalomania is closer to comedy and farce. It takes the form of wearing a General’s uniform and hoping that the army will conquer his own people. In the long run, however, every dictator is like any other dictator. Burnham certainly has the capacity to make life miserable for the entire population of our small nation. Like all classic dictatorships, that which exists in Guyana has fostered the cult of the personality. The minority Peoples National Congress (PNC) regime has used all manner of tricks and gimmicks to make the “Comrade Leader” appear to be a demi-god. Some of the gimmicks were inherited from those of our past colonial oppression. Thus on the exercise books of school children, the face of the reigning English monarch was simply replaced by that of the Prime Minister, even though there is a President as constitutional head of state in Guyana.
“For a small nation, Guyana has produced a discouragingly large number of lackeys and stooges who hide in the shadow of the “Comrade Leader.” Guyanese constantly complain of “square pegs in round holes.” The square pegs are the misfits and soup drinkers who flourish because each one is prepared to be his master’s voice. There is a double tragedy in this situation. First there is the tragedy (with some mixture of comedy) of the incompetent, the mediocre, and the corrupt making a mess of things. Secondly, there is the tragedy in which men and women of ability and integrity have been dismissed, or they have run away, or they have been reduced to silence. This part of the tragedy involves honest police officers who must condone corruption, doctors who must heal without drugs, managers who are not allowed to manage, and workers who are not permitted to produce and are then forced to consume a diet of lies and deceit. And all of this, incidentally, is carried on in the name of socialism.
“The fate of the army and police can serve as examples of the trickery which built the Burnham dictatorship. According to the Guyana constitution, each soldier or policeman takes an oath of loyalty to his country symbolized by the Head of State. Each soldier or policeman is expected to be loyal to the commands of an elected government representing the people. Little by little since independence, loyalty to the country became loyalty to the PNC and then personal loyalty to Burnham.” Forewarned is forearmed.
