Guyanese have been put on notice that the country could return to the days of “Burnhamism” as President David Granger is finding it difficult to adapt to the values of the 21st century and keeps referring to policies and positions that were imposed during the 70s and 80s in Guyana.
Jagdeo said this position of the President was further reinforced when he addressed the gathering of People’s National Congress (PNC) supporters in the
Late President Forbes Burnham
United States recently. The Opposition Leader said he is convinced that Guyana could return to the worse era in the country because most of the President’s speech showed descent in the PNC and a return of the days of late President Forbes Burnham.
“The President probably did not know he was being live streamed when he spoke at a PNC Chapter abroad so when he thought he was making a speech that it may be confined to the room… and so that speech is very revealing to many people and it showed significant descent in the PNC… I think he’s stuck in the mind-set of the 70s and the 80s,” he told media operatives on Wednesday.
Jagdeo said based on the President’s speech, it seems that there is a significant yield of descent over the path the PNC is pursuing and its programmes in the Government. He also believes that the President is trying to return to authoritarian leadership, where “he wants to crown all of this by saying, you know, you have to be faithful to the leader.”
Further, the Opposition Leader elaborated another reason to believe his assertions were accurate was the fact that Granger’s examples of “people being unfaithful” involved former Prime Minister Hamilton Green, and others who left the PNC party and affected the support base.
“…he had the most scathing criticism for former President (Desmond) Hoyte and if you read the coded messages about President Hoyte is that he (Hoyte) made an error in changing the economic programme of the PNC, he made an error in allowing free and fair elections, and President Hoyte departed from Burnhamism, didn’t want to be called comrade anymore and that he, Granger is going to go back to ensure that Burnham’s legacy is maintained and fulfilled,” Jagdeo said.
In addition, the former Head of State posited that Granger’s mindset is dominated by the memories of the 70s and 80s era when he became a part of the elite and failed to recognise how the actions of the then PNC Leader, Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham “devastated this country.”
“I remember saying this in the campaign trail in 2015 that his [Granger’s] whole philosophy and therefore his policies are locked into that [70s and 80s] era because his mindset is dominated by those things that he remembers fondly because he was part of an elite…without seeing how those same policies devastated this country, pauperised the Public Sector, led to huge accumulation of debt, many of our people [out of Guyana] feeling that [the country] was a pariah state.”
“He did not experience those things because he is part of the ruling elite and again we see the same thing. He does not sympathise with people,” Jagdeo posited.
As such, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is calling on Guyanese to “bring our President into our 21st century” by voicing their criticisms and displaying public advocacy so as to prevent an electoral fraud.
“… Burnhamism tried and the lack of democracy tried because we were a closed society… but now it’s not going to work Mister President; it’s not going to work again,” the Opposition Leader bluntly declared.
He posited that if this Administration works hard and ensure that their policies are appropriate for Guyanese development, then they are capable of fairly winning the elections in this modern era.
Nevertheless, Jagdeo emphasised that citizens need to express their dissatisfaction with the Government’s attempts to return to a past that devastated the lives of many.
“We are not asking anyone to support…PPP’s position. All we’re asking is that people support and express descent now, in whatever fashion they can. Not with violence because violence has no place in our society but expressing robustly their dissatisfaction with attempt to take us back to that sordid past that destroyed the lives of so many people.”
In Granger’s speech while in Atlanta a few days ago, the statement that caught the attention of many and brought about fear was when he said: “You have to ask yourself how the PNC gained office in 1964. Ask how the PNC remained in office and what it did to do so. Ask yourself how the PNC regained office in 2015 and ask yourself how would the PNC retain office in 2020”.
Since then, several members of the public have voiced their interpretations of the President’s words. According to former Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, “there is no room for misinterpretation. Every one of the PNC activists knows exactly what he was speaking of.”
Ramsammy said that the statement describes an elicit promise by leaders of the PNC to their supporters to restore the legacy of Forbes Burnham – the legacy of usurping and keeping power through rigged elections and dictatorship.
“President David Granger gave his clearest, most unambiguous, most explicit promise that his mission is to carry on from where Forbes Burnham left off in 1985,” he said.
