The PPP is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its formation as your Eyewitness wrote yesterday. But seems that PNC folks are pretty miffed that the comrades (?) from Freedom House didn’t even MENTION their founder leader Burnham – who was there at the PPP’s formation!! While your Eyewitness ain’t miffed, he’s certainly surprised at this omission. He believes you gotta always give Jack – or Forbes – his jacket – even if it’s a stink and dutty jacket!! And boy, was Burnham’s jacket stink and dutty when he was in the PPP!!
Burnham’s claim to fame was to’ve won the Guyana Scholarship when he attended the elite Queen’s College and topped the Senior Cambridge rankings in 1942. At a time when class and colour went hand in hand, Negro-Guyanese – as they insisted they be called then – were over-the-top that one of their own had beaten the sons of the Whites and Coloureds who were above them on the food chain!! The ongoing WWII delayed Burnham’s trip to England to pick up his scholarship till 1945 – when he did; and became a lawyer in 1949, after winning the “Best Speakers Cup” at his Uni!!
Meanwhile, back in Guyana, Jagan had returned in 1943, while Forbes was swotting away at his external BA. As one who’d written – at the age of 12 – he’d be a leader not only of Guyana, but of the Caribbean, one can imagine Burnham’s consternation at Cheddi’s move to organize the intelligentsia for Independence!! Be that as it may, when the latter’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) was about to be launched as the PPP, Jagan had Ashton Chase step aside as the “African” face in favour of Burnham, who had a bigger profile – and was recommended by the Communist Party of Britain!!
Burnham returned in 1949, and stepped into a structure that was already in place – but he immediately began jockeying and manoeuvring to be the Top Gun in the PPP!! Interestingly, it was Eusi Kwayana – then Sydney King – who held him off at the pass on two occasions!! But he connived with the Yanks and Brits to deny Jagan the leadership, and split the PPP in 1955. As such, while the ethnic cleavages were there, this callous and cynical move by Burnham served to split the electorate – and engender bitter Indo-Afro hostilities and riots into the present.
That’s actually Burnham’s contribution to the PPP – to destroy the nationalist movement that could’ve created a more unified and prosperous nation. Your Eyewitness believes Pressie erred in not mentioning this role – especially since PNC types and fellow travellers have been working assiduously to scrape off the muck from Burnham’s legacy to burnish his image.
Burnham should be an object lesson on the dangers of plucking leaders to represent others.
…safety?
Some folks have their bucktas and drawers all in a knot because the Min of Infrastructure levelled with the nation and said that, rather than the promised end of March completion, the new DHB won’t be operational till end of August. Now, this is a bridge on which over 9000 vehicles – at this time, but growing exponentially! – would cross daily, transporting commuters between the West Side and Reg 4. Do they want us to be singing our variant of the old ditty, “London Bridge is falling down”??
The minister said the delay is due to the need for “concrete – presumably for the girders now being laid across the piles – to be cured”. Now, we may know that this curing period shoulda been factored in by the Chinese bridge builder from the beginning, but from where your Eyewitness sits, he’d rather the builders be safe than sorry!!
Cause, in this case, it won’t just be some pontoons floating upriver with cars on them, but concrete sections collapsing into the river!!
…previous repairs
Your Eyewitness just read that, according to Stabroek Market, the Bourda Market is up for rehab. Your Eyewitness wants to know what happened to the PNC’s $32M in 2019. Gone like the billion-dollar Jubilee Stadium??
