It’s been ten years since Burnham’s successor as President of Guyana – Hugh Desmond Hoyte – passed. His accession was a bit unexpected, since Burnham was only 62 when he died on the Operating Table at Georgetown Public Hospital – supposedly suffering from an undisclosed “throat ailment”. Hoyte had been seen as a loyal apparatchik, initially plucked from Burnham’s law office to oversee matters on the Elections Commissions in 1967 as Burnham prepared the ground for the big rig in 1968. Lots of folks felt he was made PM by Burnham because the latter felt that Hamilton Green – who was convinced he was the heir apparent – was getting too big for his britches!!
Hoyte, with absolutely no political base, was seen as a safe placeholder after the faithful Ptolemy Reid had stepped aside as PM in 1984. As soon as he took over, with the support of Reid, Hoyte was made PNC leader – to the gnashing of teeth by Green!! Hoyte immediately proceeded to rig the 1985 elections to give himself a bigger majority than Burnham ever did!! Clearly, his introduction into the PNC as a cog in the first rigging apparatus served him well!! But, going forward, it was obvious he’d absorbed the art of Machiavellian politics from his “Comrade Leader” more than most had suspected!!
Before you could say “Abna Babna”, Hoyte had earned the sobriquet “Silver Fox” – not just because of his grey hair – but for the way he eliminated the “Burnhamites”, even as he swore fealty to their cooperative socialist line!! Your Eyewitness has no desire to expand on how he abandoned that ideology and signed on with the IMF to get rid of the albatross of debt Burnham had bequeathed him!! Save to say that Guyanese displayed their wit under pressure when they summarised the IMF’s “Economic Recovery Program” (ERP) as an “Empty Rice Pot”!! And when he devalued our currency by a factor of ten, everyone started singing Sparrow’s “Ten to one is Murdah”!!
But his real mettle was shown after accepting Jimmy Carter’s suggestion to abolish “overseas voting” for the 1992 elections. His nemesis, Hamilton Green – then PM – told him to his face that “only an inexperienced schoolboy” would do that!! Hoyte promptly expelled him from the PNC!! Green also severely criticised him when he accepted the loss of the 1992 elections – just as he did Granger in 2020. They ignore that Burnham was allowed to get away with rigging not because of some political legerdemain, but because of the US’ hard Cold War political calculus!!
Anyhow, facing criticism, as Opposition Leader, about his strategy, from some young lions in the PNC, he summarily dismissed the young General Secretary – Aubrey Norton.
The GS was the Leader’s “creature”. He who appoints can dismiss!
…development sequencing
Your Eyewitness heard the Opposition Leader criticising the Government for plunging ahead with all these “mega projects” – while Guyana still has so many poor people. Forty-nine percent, he quoted the IMF as saying. But the OL should remember the aphorism, “Give a man a fish and you give him a meal for the day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life.” The point of the matter is that the Government’s trying to attract businesses of all types to Guyana, so they can offer jobs to our citizens — while avoiding the Dutch Disease of being dependent only on natural resource extraction.
But businesses need cheap electricity and good transportation facilities – roads and bridges etc. -before they’ll come. We know this not only because that’s how other ex-colonies developed while others like us stagnated, but because the notion of deferred gratification for development is now accepted as applicable to countries as well as to persons!
Intergenerational wealth comes only from accumulated capital. You gotta first invest your income to build it!!
…“women’s place”
The Afghan Taliban Govt have explained why they’ve banned women from universities. It’s not just the decadent westernizing ideas, but evidently, subjects like “engineering” aren’t suitable for women.
Just keep them barefooted and pregnant down on the farm!!
