Yesterday we commemorated the 55th anniversary of our attainment of Republican status on Feb 23rd 1970. Commemorations of events offer us the opportunity to reflect on the events with the benefit of hindsight, and to try to rectify whatever we may believe we have fallen short of from the initial imperative. The PNC had inherited the reins of government in 1964, courtesy of the British and American governments after the latter unilaterally decided that a PPP government under Cheddi Jagan was unacceptable. He was adjudged to be a communist who would lean towards the USSR/Russia, which the Americans had declared to be their geopolitical enemy. Independence from Britain was granted in 1966, in the arrangement where the Queen of Britain remained as the titular head of state and the Prime Minister (Burnham), was head of the government.
He was supported by the Americans financially and otherwise and allowed to rig the 1968 elections. In 1970 he cut the final ties to Britain to declare Guyana a Republic. February 23rd was chosen to putatively link the new dispensation with the seminal Berbice rebellion by Cuffy in 1763, when he led the enslaved people on the Dutch plantations to replace the planters and government – albeit temporarily. With Guyana’s head of state now president (Arthur Chung) who was nominated by PM Burnham, Guyana was well on its way towards becoming a dictatorship. This was legitimized by a unilaterally-announced new Constitution in 1980 following another rigged election in 1973, which conferred powers on the new “Executive President” Burnham that exceeded those of the Queen of England, whom he replaced.
For the Guyanese people, republican status meant a dictatorship that violently crushed any opposition and oversaw an economy and society that was destroyed by the arbitrary policies implemented on the whims and fancies of Burnham. To distract the increasingly desperate and impoverished populace, Burnham adopted Mashramani – which began in 1970 as an event in Linden to commemorate Republic Day – as a state-sponsored national event. By mandating that all Government entities (at a time when the Government controlled eighty percent of the economy) including schools and Ministries had to get involved in the Mash, the Government sent the message that “Mash” was the Guyanese way to commemorate Republic Day. To do so any other way was to be outside the pale and literally marching to a different drummer. Burnham also adopted communist North Korea’s “Juche” ideology that glorified the “eternal” infallible leader in Mass Games.
Today, the world is again experiencing a polarized international environment in which a small state like Guyana, even with its newly-found oil resources, must traverse prudently. President Trump has continued with the now decades-old US identification of China as the major threat to its hegemonic position in the world. The latter is poised to pip the US as the world’s largest economy and, with its recent advances in AI and hi-tech manufacturing, along with its globe-spanning Belt and Road Initiative, has demonstrated the competition will intensify. Trump’s present efforts to strike a rapprochement with Russia vis a vis Europe and NATO in the Ukraine war, will intensify its competition with China. As such, in the words of Yogi Berra, “it might be like déjà vu all over again” as we deal with China that is now engaged in so many of our infrastructural projects, even as we depend of the US for our security that is threatened by a Maduro-led Venezuela in its hemisphere.
Domestically, the PPP government is still confronted by a PNC-led opposition, that was brazenly willing to rig the 2020 elections and hold on to power. This even though they had demonstrated they could win elections based on articulation of policies that appealed to groups outside their traditional support base. Most disconcertingly, the PNC opposition leader announced in parliament he was proud of Burnham’s post-1970 “ban on staples” that inflicted unimaginable hardships on the people.
As we approach elections 2025, let us protect our Republic from those who would forget the lessons of history.
