The history of Guyana is being rewritten in a manner that would make future generations believe that only the People’s Progressive Party ever led this country. In fact, there would be the belief that nothing happened before October 5, 1992.
The most recent major construction, the new Demerara Harbour Bridge was commissioned on October 5, 2025. The date was not accidental. Also on that date, a structure initiated by Forbes Burnham in 1978 was pushed into oblivion.
That structure was the first Demerara Harbour Bridge that enhanced communication between the east bank and the west bank of the Demerara River.
When a name was first suggested supporters of the PPP were hostile to the bridge. One wag suggested that it be called Viola’s passage. Viola was Burnham’s wife.
The comments about the bridge were derogatory. Many said that it was a waste of time, that it was of World War Two vintage, that it was useless. That bridge was built to last for 20 years. It continued in existence until October 5, 2025, forty-seven years after it was commissioned.
Then came the abomination. They named the new bridge the Bharrat Jagdeo River Crossing. That was a clear move to place the PPP stamp on another landmark. It is not that Jagdeo did anything sensational in the life of this nation.
He killed the sugar industry, presided over rampant inflation in this country, and fostered racial conflict in this land of so many race groups.
This pattern of branding national landmarks after PPP leaders began with the renaming of the Timehri International Airport. Soon after Dr Cheddi Jagan died there was the rush to change the name. The People’s National Congress had to remind that the name was chosen after a nationwide competition and that only an act of parliament could have enforced the change. The PPP duly went to parliament and used its majority to effect the change.
Even the national motto of “One People, One Nation, One Destiny” is being ignored. It seems to have been replaced by One Guyana. The One Guyana brand is all over making this country the first in the world to modify its national motto. The next thing may be to change the pledge and the national anthem.
In fact, things have reached the stage where national songs are no longer sung. One would doubt that any school child knows the national songs. Those have been consigned to the dustbins of history.
But back to the Demerara Harbour Bridge. With the growing transportation on the roads one would have expected that the old bridge would have existed alongside the new one.
There could have been nothing wrong with two bridges existing almost side by side. In New York, the century-old Brooklyn Bridge exists alongside the Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge. There is also the midtown tunnel all moving traffic between Brooklyn and Manhattan.
There can only be one conclusion. There seems to be a move to remove everything that bears the hand of Forbes Burnham.
One day after the bridge was commissioned there was such a build-up of vehicular traffic that everything came to a standstill. This would not have happened had the old bridge remained operational.
The Soesdyke-Linden highway was left to deteriorate to a level that it became a death trap. That highway was completed in 1968, the same year that the Cheddi Jagan International Airport was completed.
Forbes Burnham had undertaken two major projects at the same time with the same completion date.
The highway too was built to last for twenty years. At the end of its life, money was secured by the Desmond Hoyte administration for a reconstructed highway.
In 1993, the PPP, on the advice of the then Prime Minister Sam Hinds, said that the government, rather than spend so much money on the highway, would simply repair it. The result was a damaged surface over the years and numerous crashes.
To this day the nation is still awaiting the reconstruction of a new highway. There is another issue that Guyanese are paying scant attention to. On October 6, 1976 eleven Guyanese died when terrorists placed a bomb aboard a Cubana airline. That plane exploded off the coast of Barbados.
The Guyanese who perished were a child, Sabrina Harripaul, Eric Norton, Ann Nelson, Raymond Persaud, Margaret Bradshaw, Gordon M. Sobha, Rawle Thomas, Rita Thomas, Violet Thomas, Jacqueline Williams and Seshnarine Kumar.
Most of the Guyanese who died were heading to pursue studies in Cuba. Right up until 1992 Guyana publicly observed the anniversary of the Cubana Air Disaster. The Cubans had helped construct a monument on the Turkeyen campus of the University of Guyana.
This was a national event. Last year, Guyana’s Foreign Minister Hugh Todd, headed Guyana’s delegation to the observation. This year, Education Minister, Sonia Parag, and Minister Within the Culture, Youth and Sport Ministry, Steven Jacobs, attended the commemoration ceremony at Turkeyen.
This part of Guyana’s history is not taught in schools. Young Guyanese know nothing about it. The students who died had done their national service at Papaya a few weeks before leaving on that ill-fated trip.
Had they survived the disaster most would have already made their contribution to Guyana and would have retired. Guyana lost.
