Dear Editor,
Mark Twain is credited with the following statement, Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics.
The well known former British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli is alleged to have made this remark while in Office. These words came to mind after reading the strongly worded letter by Dr. Randolph Persaud in response to Annette Ferguson’s eulogizing Forbes Burnham on his centenary of his birth.
The figures quoted by Dr. Persaud has been changed upwards and downwards on many occasions but he failed to give Burnham credit for taking us through to Independence in the middle of a stressful world situation when we were caught in the middle of a destructive battle between the Soviet Union, their Allies and the United States, United Kingdom and their Allies..
Second, when Burnham led the first coalition after the 1964 Elections, he, his Party and the United Force went throughout this country to bring hitherto warring communities together. This was not easy but with courage the coalition succeeded in many areas getting people to work together to build schools, cottage hospitals and even Police Stations. All this in the midst of the heightened racial and the call from certain quarters, Dr. Persaud ought to be aware of what we understood to be ‘Apan Jaat.”
Dr. Persaud failed to recognize or to remember the great damage done to us during the 70s as to the result of the oil crisis. Guyana at that time was one of the several non-oil producing countries whose economy was devastated. Before the oil crisis, I recall we could have purchased one barrel of oil (fuel) by selling two or three tons of sugar. Suddenly, we had to sell over 20 tons of sugar to buy the same barrel of oil.
On National Service, enough has been said. It was intended to bring young people from the Corentyne Coast to the Northwest, from the Coastland plain to the Rupununi, to live, learn and work together in a controlled environment of love so that the prejudices of our colonial past could be erased.
It was Burnham who in spite of objections from sections of the upper middle class gave officials an equal recognition to Muslim, Hindus and Christians’ by making them public holidays. It was Burnham who ensured that we had a cadre of Diplomats of high quality and respect, conscious that our Diplomats are Ambassadors, High Commissioners must be persons of rectitude because they are the frontline of a country in the comity of nations and he had no place for cuss-birds and people who showed disdain, disregard and disrespect for our women folk.
To advance the concept of justice and equality Burnham set in motion free education for all, from kindergarten to University including training overseas
We must not forget that it was Dr. Cheddi Jagan, who I regarded as a true nationalist who joined forces with Burnham in the 70s to take over bauxite and sugar in what today we know as critical support .
It was Burnham with the help of Sir Lionel Luckhoo who brought Clive LLoyd back . In the sporting circles, this was known as Burnham Magic and propelled the West Indies Cricket team in the top bracket of world cricket.
I don’t want to say further except that Annette Ferguson is right and Dr. Randolph Persaud is wrong.
Yours truly,
Eric Moseley, MS
