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The presentation below was made by Major Derrick Lawrence at the National Congress of Women (NCW) event to mark the 38th Death Anniversary (August 6, 2023) of Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham. Lawrence was Burnham’s longest serving Aide de Camp
Mr. Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham’s contributions to this dear land of ours, that all Guyanese, both here and in the diaspora, call home, have been unmatched by any other leader so far….
..and no other Guyanese political leader has ever attained the stature of Forbes Burnham on the local, regional, and international stages.
It is therefore, with a deep sense of gratitude, pride, humility and reverence, that I confess at the very beginning of this presentation that one of the greatest honour of my working life, was opportunity and privilege to have worked closely with this great world class leader and FATHER OF the Nation. Yes!! I said it.
…And I’ll say it again several times throughout this presentation.
Although I am aware, that our ship of state has fallen into the hands of those who have proven themselves to be so reckless, irresponsible and intellectually dishonest, as to bask in the futility of a distorted version of historical revisionism, rather than face the truth….however inconvenient that truth may be………..and we must never let anyone rewrite our history for their own selfish and partisan gains. Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was the father of this great nation. The facts prove it, we know it, and that settles it.
But I came not to address that issue today, but rather to join you in reflections of the life and work of our late great Founder leader.
As we get ready to indulge in these reflections, let us first pause to understand the exercise today’s theme requires of us. Reflection is a word often associated with light, it’s the casting light on the past. Reflecting involves serious thought and consideration. It’s what we see when we look into a mirror, in addition to seeing ourselves, we see what’s behind us.
When we reflect on the Founder Leader of this great party, we see a leader whom every serious analyst here in Guyana, in the Caribbean and internationally, declared to be a man ahead of his time. The late great legal luminary and attorney General and Minister of Justice at the time addressing a PNC Congress in 1979 declared that Forbes Burnham was a man ahead of his time. What did he mean?
The truth is that Dr. Shahabudeen was not singular in that perspective. Back then, everyone who seriously engaged and interacted with Burnham recognized that his new ideas then, were not yet current ideas but worthy of pursuit. Clearly Forbes Burnham as you have heard it said time and time again was a visionary Leader who did only talk of new ideas but he had the courage of his convictions to implement them sometimes risking a loss of popularity.
Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was a patriot with a mission. Understanding the devastating impact of the dehumanisation and servitude that the slaves who were brought to then British Guyana endured, and knowing that even those who came later and called by other names such as indentured servants, still lived a life of servitude, under the oppressive arm of the colonizers.
This level of understanding inspired the young Forbes Burnham to join the progressive forces to end servitude in all of its forms, no matter how subtle,… how insidious.
In that regard Burnham became a freedom fighter first to attain independence and secondly to make that independence meaningful through purposeful development of our natural resources with the full involvement of all of the citizens of this great nation. He was clear that our struggles had to be the struggle of one people, one nation with a common destiny.
Comrade Chair, as we reflect this afternoon, allow me to do so from the fortunate vantage point that I had to observe our Founder Leader. I had the coveted opportunity of witnessing the father of our nation at work, from a place that was up close, and personal.
I was his Aide de Camp and Deputy Head of his Presidential Security outfit for the last four years of his life.
Most of what I will share with you today is therefore what I witnessed of the man firsthand.
Our Founder Leader was passionate about imparting the absolute need for his people to change their mental attitude and approach towards work, self and country. Unless we become independent from the inside out, we’ll remain colonised under a different system.
Independence, he would passionately explain, meant that we must assert ourselves as the new owners of Guyana, and that must mean we had to be sure that we became competent in every sphere of activity because we had just become the final authority in all our affairs.
He would argue that independence on paper had to be accompanied by the building of a robust economic base through self-reliance and total involvement.
Forbes Burnham reminded the nation at regular intervals that we had become a sovereign state. We would then explain what the meant. It meant that all Guyanese people should stand tall, with dignity and pride as the owners of this country. We were the ones to determine how we would use our natural resources for the benefit of all our people. He always stressed whatever we did was for all Guyanese since we were one people, one nation with a common destiny.
The effectiveness of his extraordinary oratorical skills always inspired this nation to action. Long before I even started working on the personal staff of Our Founder Leader, I was always blown away by his eloquence, the clarity of his arguments and the courage of his conviction. All of it made it so easy for one to follow this great Leader because He always seemed to be in control, knew where he wanted to take this nation, and soooo gifted in his ability to cast his vision in ways that inspired the nation.
Here is an example, the Founder Leader hated to see his people in poverty. He was a man of profound thinker and saw the relationship between poverty and a new more subtle form of servitude. He had the vision to eradicate poverty and he stayed on message as he casted that vision over and over again until every man woman and child alive in Guyana at that time understood that the small man, (the poor and downtrodden and marginalised, the poverty stricken. Yes that man was going to become a real man (a man who would have the means to provide for his family, never go hungry, have his own home be able to keep clothes on his body.
For those who operated at one level the leader’s plan was economic self-sufficiency through self-reliance and citizens involvement….. for another level, simply “the small man will be a real man” through the feed, house. He had the ability reach you wherever you were. He skillfully communicated that vision using the right language so that every level of society understood clearly where he wanted to take the nation and how we would get there. Burnham did not hesitate to communicate his vision to his party and the nation as frequently as possible.
Feed, clothe and house yourself programme and through self-help projects.
Forbes Burnham was a visionary.
A true visionary does not only talk the talk, he walks the talk. Forbes Burnham was such a visionary. He skillfully communicated that vision using the right language so that every level of society understood clearly where he wanted to take the nation and how we would get there. Burnham did not hesitate to communicate his vision to his party and the nation as frequently as possible.
He would deliver regular radio broadcasts to the nation, did regular press conferences and he would passionately remind us that as an independent nation we must never become mendicants at the doorsteps of our former colonizers. With the awesome power of his extraordinary oratorical skills, he inspired the newly independent Guyana to cultivate, nurture and demonstrate a level of self confidence the formerly enslaved, indentured servants, and colonized people of Guyana never knew until then.
Linden Sampson Burnham therefore taught us how to be a sovereign nation. Under his watch we got all of our current symbols of nationhood, the flag, the coat of arms the motto. And he did it all with his party’s full involvement and in charting the course.
In his thrust towards the eradication of poverty and the empowerment of the small man, Burnham made clear, that even though one might not have the resources to further desired economic pursuits on his own, that’s no reason to count yourself out of the economic life of the country. He casted the vision of cooperatives as a vehicle to help the small man become a real man. But he did not only talk about forming cooperatives, he provided an educational unit to teach its principles and the laws governing the cooperative, he established the infrastructure to support the cooperative movement. He gave us the cooperative bank, the Cooperative Agri bank, the Cooperative mortgage bank,,,he was always clearly prepared to walk the talk.
His Love and concern for our youth stood out in his leadership style. The National Service among other things was intended to develop the God given talent of our young people and to teach them the importance of unity in diversity as a national strategy.
He recognised education as a great equaliser and leveled the playing field when he made it free from the nursery to university as he often said.
As His Aide de Camp, I traveled overseas with the Founder leader and I saw him literally walked among kings and still…back home he never lost the common touch.
Touching on the common touch, Burnham enjoyed horseback riding, and in the effort to advance his FCH programme he would distribute cassava sticks and seeds of various kinds and sometimes even young plants, he would have a senior Agriculture officer with him. Some of you would have heard of the horseback riding stories and some of those stories distorted no doubt.
It was something beautiful to observe his interaction with the people as he rode along encouraging them to farm up their yards to feed themselves. He would speak to the people in a language they understood, he would listen to their challenges offer advice suggestions and help where needed.
He identified community organizers in the process and assigned them duties to help their neighbors to get with the self-help and FCH programs. Most of these community organizers were women, A few names come to mind:
Eloise from the Victoria area – Because Eloise knew how to talk to her neighbours and others in the village, she got a constant visit from the Leader and lots of planting materials to distribute in her community. Eloise became a very highly respected woman in her community and a friend of the Comrade Leader. Joan Baveghems was another, and a Comrade Chichester..
These were all ordinary people but they had direct access to the leader because they were prepared to encourage their peers to follow the program. In their own right they were really community organisers committed to the vision of great leader
The Leader used to refer to our great party as the vanguard and the women arm of this great party as the vanguard of the vanguard. He knew that he could count on the women to advance the cause. I would do him no justice, if I did not say to you today that this arm of our party held a very special place in the heart of our leader. He understood that he could always count on the women to get things done. The Tie dye clothing and the various exhibitions mounted back then by this arm of the party was testimony to their capacity to deliver.
The world has changed, and we are not in government today, but I call on this [women] arm of the party to continue the struggle started by our great Leader. Stand your ground and stand strong as together as a party, we continue the struggle to eradicate poverty and maintain our independence which means we must never return to any form of servitude.
In conclusion let me say this. Every time I think of the man Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham a certain poem comes to mind. It’s the poem “IF-“ Permit me to just read a part of that poem:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Comrade Founder Leader, I know you are here with us today and I wish to make it clear, that the years I spent working with you have made a man out of me. Today as I address the women’s arm of the great party you along with others founded, it is clear to me that you were on to something way back then when you called them the vanguard of the Vanguard. Today the world is waking up to the reality that women are possessed of a revolutionary fighting spirit. The world is so full of examples. Today we hear of the young Swedish woman Greta Thunberg, the environmental activist who started a global movement and
And we know that although martin Luther King was the Civil Rights leader of world fame that mo0vement only caught fire in America when a woman named Rosa Parks refused to get up from her seat on the bus. Today it’s the courage of the women in Iran that has captured the attention of the world and it was three women in the USA who stated the now global Black Lives Matter Movement. ….so today, I have come to inform this National Congress of Women that your Founder Leader, have inspired to be the vanguard of the vanguard, that you first placed your confidence in them, they must NEVER LET YOU DOWN.
I have come to caution them that although they have now changed their name and the word revolutionary is no longer a part of their name, they must never ever let go of their revolutionary fighting spirit.
And now that I have delivered that message continue to sleep well Great Leader….Continue to Rest In Peace.