Cheddi Jagan and the Politics of Power: British Guiana's Struggle for Independence

Epilogue

( Epilogue ) Guyana is a country of enormous economic promise and blessed with enterprising citizens. But it is also a land with a raciallydivided polityand a history of internecine conflicts largely created and manipulated by some unscrupulous leaders. Forbes Burnham’s assumption of the premiership in December 1964 began his two-decade domination of the political life of the emerging nation, ending only with his death in 1985. His party, the People’s National Congress, managed to remain in office until the People’s Progressive Party won the general election held in 1992. An aging Cheddi Jagan became the new president and held the position until his own death in 1997. Janet Jagan succeeded him, remaining in office until declining health and strong opposition to the leadership of a white foreign-born person forced her to retire in 1999. Mrs. Jagan’s retirement brought an end to the Burnham-Jagan era in Guyana. Their successors represented a new generation of leaders born in the second half of the twentieth century but still imprisoned by the racial disharmony of the past. Forbes Burnham, premier and first prime minister, was diminished from the outset of his tenure because of the questionable circumstances of his election in 1964. His victory represented the triumph of Anglo-American machinations, tarnishing his claim to office and depriv- Epilogue (  ) ing him of moral legitimacy. As Jagan and the PPP waited in the wings for a restoration, Burnham consolidated his hold on power, undermining and ultimately destroying the coalition with the United Force, and gaining an outright majority for the PNC by manipulating the elections held in 1968. The PNC emerged from that contest with 30 seats in the 53-member parliament. With Guyana’s destiny now completely his to shape, Burnham pursued the politics of power, seriously maiming the institutions of his infant nation. He declared Guyana a “cooperative republic,” embraced the language of socialism , drew closer to nations that practiced that ideology, and nationalized such pillars of the economy as sugar and bauxite. Burnham became increasingly intolerant of his opponents, persecuting some of them at home and precipitating the flight of others. Cheddi Jagan, on his part, thrashed about for a viable strategy to confront Burnham, supported his nationalization ventures, and proclaimed his fealty to communism. This was hardly a surprise, as it represented yet another of Jagan’s excursions into the politics of rhetoric and the quixotic embrace of the grammar of an ideology but not its substance. By the time he returned to office in 1992, the Soviet Union had collapsed and international communism was in active retreat. Jagan governed as a social democrat, introducing policies more akin to capitalism than communism, much as he had done prior to 1964. Guyana’s descent into economic chaos in the 1970s and the 1980s was a consequence of Burnham’s mismanagement, exacerbated by weaknesses in the global economy. But something else of more enduring significance was occurring. Guyana’s collective psyche was damaged by the assaults on its young institutions, the battering and circumscribing of dissent, the flight of some of the most productive citizens, and a worsening of the cancerous racial tumors. When Dr. Walter Rodney, a talented historian and founder of the multiracial Working People’s Alliance was murdered in 1979 allegedly by Burnham’s henchmen, Guyana’s societal wounds were painfully exposed and its anguish dramatically manifested. Contemporary Guyana shows the political, racial, and emotional scars of its troubled and unhappy past. But its future need not be burdened or circumscribed by them. The accumulated wrongs and missteps described in these pages will not be easily made right, but the tantalizing promise of societal reconciliation, peace and harmony among its people, a common national purpose, and economic development must remain alive with its leaders and citizenry. ...