Remembering…

…a great Guyanese

They don’t make ‘em like they used to, do they?? Nah…your Eyewitness ain’t talking about any Guyanese politician…but a journalist – Rickey Singh, who he just discovered in an obit was originally named “Ramotar”. Guess back in the 1930’s when he was born, it wasn’t only Cheddi who adopted an English name (Berret)!! Inducted into journalism as a cub reporter – following a short stint as a proof reader correcting grammatical errors – usually blamed on the “printer’s devil” not caught! – he was the right man in the right place at the right time!
The 1950s were a cauldron of politics as the fledgling anti-colonial struggle was kicked off by the PPP and the PNC – which was its spawn!! They took on the older, more sedate political operators and were covered by a press that was owned by the colonial elite. Rickey was hired by the Guiana Graphic that had been launched by the Thompson Group from Britain in 1944 – when Rickey was seven.
Rickey graduated into covering the political scene while he was in his twenties, and remained committed to that scene to the end of his life!! Your Eyewitness remembers hanging out at the rural barber tent that provided the only newspaper daily in his village – and appreciating the wit and wisdom of Rickey at an early age pronouncing on the political goings on!! He later revealed how pressure was brought on him by Burnham in the 70s through the Editor Carl Blackman – whose columns I also enjoyed – that eventually caused him to leave. Interestingly, he once wrote a letter in the papers which revealed that he thought the departure of Ramphal – to the Commonwealth Secretariat – in 1975 removed a moderating influence on Burnham and was the final straw for his move to Barbados.
Apropos a recent criticism by PNC leader Norton of President Ali for a terse reply he gave to a reporters recently, it should be mentioned that Rickey had once been slapped by Desmond Hoyte for daring to ask him a question on his portfolio!! Rickey became a correspondent for Reuters which had absorbed the Thompson Group, and from Barbados broadened his column to include the entire Caribbean in the “Caribbean Contact”. Your Eyewitness continued to read him voraciously. He showed that aversion to critical journalism wasn’t confined to Guyana and Burnham – since he was given a hard time by the governments of both Barbados and Trinidad. Eric Williams of T&T forced him out of that island, while Tom Adams hounded him after his coverage of the Grenada invasion.
But as the true journalist he was, he never became bitter or personal and would give Jack his jacket – Williams for his scholarship and Burnham for his oratorical skills.
RIP Rickey Singh!!

…Old lesson
Recalling Rickey Singh and Burnham reminded your Eyewitness that while Burnham was full of words – he was also full of other things!! He threw out foreign “capital” and told us “we the people” now owned 80% of the “commanding heights of the economy”. But did that change anything in the lives of the “small man” or the “working class”?? It certainly did – but not in the way he’d been promised. Rather than living better, he was plunged into sufferation since the local fellas Burnham appointed to run the economy just ran everything into the ground! The small man now became the “hungry, homeless and naked” man!!
And your youthful Eyewitness learnt a valuable lesson: the owners of industry who ran their businesses successfully also performed “labour”. And should be well compensated since without their know-how there’d be no industry!!
Sure the oil belongs to ‘we the people”; but let’s remember what happened under Burnham.

…new parties
As your Eyewitness has been doing, one of the dailies editorialised on the ongoing political peregrinations. They claimed, “As is now customary, a host of minuscule parties has suddenly appeared, like flowers sprouting from the desert floor following a rainstorm.”
More like Jumbie umbrella after a load of horseshit was dumped!