Rashleigh Jackson just passed, at the age of 93. That some young’uns might ask (smarmily), “And who, pray tell, is Rashleigh Jackson?” reminds us of the profundity of Kahlil Gibran’s line – “The moving finger writes…and having writ, moves on.” And indeed it does, since the memory of Jackson has faded. So let your Eyewitness pay his (and it should also be the country’s) respect to a faithful servant of this country.
If for nothing else, Jackson should be remembered as the longest serving Foreign Minister of Guyana – from 1978 to 1990. Before that, he was our Representative to the UN (1973-1978), and before that, the Permanent Secretary in the Foreign Affairs Ministry. It was he who oversaw the coordination of the secretariat that organised the “Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement” in Georgetown in 1972!! He worked under his classmate Sonny Ramphal, who was the Foreign Minister then. That conference had to’ve been one of the biggest feathers in Burnham’s cap, as he used his Foreign Service to bolster his standing on the world stage!!
Burnham was a megalomaniac, plain and simple, and Guyana – even being part of Carifta – was too small for him to strut. But he recognised that for him to achieve his ambitions, he needed competent Sherpas to help him climb to the top. And in addition to accomplished big brains like Shahabuddeen, Ramphal, Wills et al, he encouraged old bright boys like Jackson, who was at Queen’s when he briefly taught there, while waiting to go off to London on his scholarship. Jackson joined the Foreign Service in 1964, when Burnham took over the Government – courtesy of MI6 and the CIA – and worked his way to the top!! One has to also give Jackson credit for being one of the FIRST GUYANESE who saw the Foreign Service as a vocation, and not just as a way station to further his ambitions. And you know all those of whom your Eyewitness speaks!!
And in this vein, what distinguished him from others was that he was a true-true patriot — inspired to improve and protect the standing of Guyana in the international arena. We gotta realise that since China had received Nixon earlier that year, the whole tenor of the 1972 Conference had to be finely balanced about the goals of non-alignment. And the lessons learnt were astutely applied when Jackson moved on to the UN the next year. As Hoyte moved to reverse Burnham’s “co-operative” gears after 1985, Jackson played an underappreciated role in stabilising the ship of state. His reading of the global shifts had to’ve helped.
By then he was a senior Minister, but not seen as a “politician”. He always was available to all succeeding Govts. RIP!!
…lesson from Gorbachev
Yesterday, your Eyewitness expatiated on the passing of Gorbachev. As he explained, the man’s heart was in the right place. He realised the USSRs’ problems were systemic – a lack of democracy and a fossilised, super-centralised economic system that was making them fall behind, rather than even catching up with the West. And this was after SEVENTY YEARS of the communist way!!
So, why’d he fail, if he launched a revolution to fix the two deficits through Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (retransformation??) The problem has to do with “revolutions”!! These attempts to make root and branch changes in one fell swoop – and, in most cases, very few societies can deal with the unintended consequences. Take the “openness” of the democratic process after 70 years of dictatorship: the chaos led to a drunken lout and demagogue like Yeltsin replacing Gorbachev!! And the economy falling into the hands of oligarchs, who took over the formerly nationalised industries.
And this explains somewhat the stubborn remnants of the Burnhamite dictatorship!! It takes time.
…tastes
Yes…we gotta buy less foreign. But first we gotta get our tastebuds to appreciate local stuff. Even Burnham, who pushed “Buy Local”, lusted for – and sneaked in – condensed milk. He should’ve first ensured LIDCO produced milk to condense!!
