So, if “independence” was supposed to be better than colonial rule, how come Hoyte had to go with bowl in hand to the IMF that was the guardian of western Imperialism twenty-three years after independence to bail us out from the crushing debt burden acquired after independence?? Weren’t the IMF’s conditionalities” for their bailout tantamount to giving up our sovereignty?? Economic freedom is the sine qua non of a state, much less and independent one! What did independence get us? More murders, more banditry, more domestic violence – not to mention leaving us hungry, naked and homeless!
This PNC lot sold out the rest of the Guyanese who hadn’t supported them – just like some Chieftains in Africa sold some folks from other Tribes to the Pirates!! As Brother Bob said, “Old pirates, yes, they rob I; Sold I to the merchant ships.” Some folks want to forget it was our own who sold us to the pirates to begin with – as our own prophet Walter Rodney showed. But then, Brother Bob also asked – as we should today – “How long shall they kill our prophets,/ While we stand aside and look?” Yet the PNC killed Rodney AFTER Independence!!
What’s the point of talking about talking about the “rule of law” when Burnham wrote his own constitution that gave him more powers than George!!?? Off with their heads, he mould mutter!! Wouldn’t, it have been better to keep the British with their laws?? Look how they had to steam into Port Georgetown to warn off mad maduro from his machinations to masticate our troops?! !! Whose minds need to be emancipated?
Burnham said the British exploited us economically…which they did! But they trained lawyers of the highest calibre – albeit twisted such as Ramphal, Shahabudeen et al, – who could write the aforementioned constitution for Burnham? What have we produced AFTER Independence? Raphael Trotman?? He’s a shame and disgrace to the legal profession which the British bequeathed to us!! How’d you give away the store when you have such glorious predecessors who showed us how to siphon off all wealth?? Even Burnham knew about the trap of “transfer pricing” when he nationalised Bauxite!! So now we have to hire some foreign legal ‘experts” – most definitely British or American. Some “Independence”!!
But Burnham’s importation of the Trinidadian Carnival takes the cake. He knew that “independence” was a farce he and the Brits cooked up to throw out his bete noir Cheddi and so stressed “Republic Day” – but as a Carnival! Today, even Trinis are complaining about Calypso Tents disappearing in favour of uninhibited alcohol-fuelled sexual displays and frolic.
Why don’t we do something Guyanese from now on??
…Mass games?
The PNC says the PPP’s independence bash at Linden was a bust. What did they want? Mass Games like Burnham introduced in 1979, just after he used his ‘sharper steel” to assassinate Walter Rodney?! It was inspired by the North Korean dictator Kim Il-Sung after his visit to that country. According to the N Koreans, Guyana would now be “carrying out socialist construction under the banner of the Juche idea created by the great leader Comrade.” “Burnham’s “cooperativism” was analogous to the ‘Juche’ of Kim Il-Sung.
Mass Games, were made compulsory for all schoolchildren – who were forced to march in the sun, perform the “lizard crawl” etc to repel “invaders”. No wonder our education system collapsed! What pleased Burnham more than anything was the excuse to introduce the “backdrop panorama” to the games on the field. Thousands of schoolchildren would move perfectly synchronised coloured cards to produce a “scene”. In the first mass Games of 1980 – with Rodney’s assassination in the offing – Burnham’s face was the first panorama!!
So, what did the PNC want at Linden?? A panorama of Norton’s face?
