Dear Editor,
Guyana is a Republican state, and is surrounded by Republican neighbours: Venezuela, Brazil, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. Guyana also shares Republican status with other Caribbean island friends: Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic and Haiti. Other sisterly Caribbean countries chose to retain the Queen as their Head (a Monarch) and are independent, with a Prime Minister, but are not a Republic, with a President: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, and the federations of St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Guyana was not a member of the 10 territories of the West Indies Federation Association, which was formed in 1958 and collapsed in 1962, being weak and limited to making decisions for internal affairs only.
Despite the association being as that of the Commonwealth nations, a body knitted as CARICOM, this tantalising question haunts many in the West Indies: Which is better off, being independent or being a republic?
The great son of Guyana’s soil, the honourable Sir Ron Saunders, had once op-ed on a conversation between Sir Lester Baird, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro back in 1994, shortly after the countries had established diplomatic relations. Sir Lester had indicated to Castro that he was contemplating relinquishing the Monarch as the country’s Head of State, and Castro had inquired why.
“Does she interfere with your Government?” Castro asked.
Sir Lester had replied in the negative, and added that her role was performed by a local representative, and it was only ceremonial, having no executive authority in the Government. Castro’s response shocked, surprised and left all flabbergasted and baffled. Castro advised, “In which case, you might consider remaining as you are. The Queen doesn’t interfere with your Government, and she provides to foreign investors and others a level of confidence in the constitutional arrangements of your state.”
Interestingly, Barbados is considering going Republic this year, while Australia and Canada prefer not to, and remain independent, sovereign countries. The undermining question bothering allied Caribbean sisters and brothers is: Why try to fix a system that is not broken?
After the introduction of Universal Adult Suffrage in the elections of 1963, Cheddi Jagan, as Premier, was allowed to rule for only 133 days, and was forcefully removed from office by the British and replaced by an interim Government. The Proportional Representation formula enforced again by the British permitted a coalition between the PNC and United Force (UF) parties to gain more votes than the PPP party, thus enabling them to form the Government in 1964.
The hands of the British and Americans stabbed the PPP party in the back, and dirty money deployed by the CIA saw the violence fanning a flame which burnt the good relationship that had existed between East Indians and Blacks. Both Britain and America are responsible for destroying the unity of all ethnicities in Guyana, having supported the sly accomplice Peter D’Aguiar and the crafty and cunning Burnham, who deviously outfoxed Cheddi Jagan.
Britain divided India and Pakistan in 1947, and caused the bitterness that exists between the Muslims and the Hindus. Britain perpetuated apartheid in South Africa for some 300 years. America glorified slavery for centuries. Guyanese still ask the question: Whom should we trust?
Guyana gained independence from Great Britain on 26th May 1966, and the PNC party ruled for 28 years until 1992, having rigged all the elections. Independence, with a French and Latin connation, is defined as a person, nation, country or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self- government and usually sovereignty over its territory. The PNC party kept the PPP at bay, and foiled the exuberance of the UF party’s optimism. Burnham immediately proceeded to hurriedly dismantle the British systems and deployed his own methods, and impatiently removed “scars” of the British affluence and the master-servant touch.
The West Indian was depicting the face of a Black person with the domineering rulership of Burnham, Barrow, Bustamante, Bird and Williams. The people of Indian descent were suppressed and ignored, and not seen as a composition of the Caribbean. The Europeans and Portuguese in Guyana were silently taking a cue and began their exodus. Independence brought about the dismantling of a country of six races and the beginning of a reign of terror by a charismatic but shrewd leader. In a question of hindsight, was an immature Guyana ready for freedom to escape a safety net, endangering hospitality with hostility?
A Co-operative Republic of Guyana was declared on February 23rd, 1970, and Burnham quickly ventured into the many nationalisations of industries, and his party members joyfully began filling round holes with square pegs, compensation of loyalty to Burnhamism.
A republican state is a form of government, one in which power rests with the citizens and their legally elected representatives. The country is considered a “public matter”, and not the private concern or property of rulers.
A rigged “referendum” was held in 1978. Burnham established the paramountcy of the PNC party over the state, Parliament and the judiciary. The primary positions of power within a republic are attained through democracy, or a mix of democracy with oligarchy or autocracy, rather than being unalterably occupied by any given family lineage or group.
Burnham governed as a dictator with a party policy of divide and control. The Police Force, the Army, the Public Service, state agencies and all Government offices were employing PNC members and were staffed with 90 percent Afro-Guyanese. One People, One Nation, One Destiny became a myth, a front, a farce, and a slogan as a whitewash to promote propaganda in name and nature only. Feed, clothe and house the nation was a concept ingrained to accommodate PNC party members through cooperative agencies with the presentation of party cards from holders.
As Guyanese began to awake with their backs against the wall, mass migration began, and Burnham was only too happy with his evil plan. National Service was conceptualised with the hope of a factory producing a master byproduct to change the landscape of Guyana’s impetus. But Man proposes and God disposes. Burnham thought he would have lived forever, as he was making an empire with a kingdom fit for himself as a permanent king and a messiah! His plans were abruptly foiled and got cancelled in 1985.
Guyanese need to ask the pertinent question: Did becoming a republic state place a great value on virtue, or more stress on a strained status to remove stability and unity from the fray of politics? To those who want to clap and cheer, Guyanese would say, “Happy Republic Day!”
Respectfully,
Jai Lall
