Mayor Green, PNCR to collaborate for Burnham’s death anniversary

Aug 05, 2008 News

The observation of the 23rd death anniversary of the first Executive President of the Republic of Guyana, His Excellency Mr Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, kicked off yesterday morning with a media conference at City Hall, where City Mayor Hamilton Green spoke briefly of the life of a man he described as a renowned President.

During the Burnham tenure, Green was considered his right hand man, and thus most likely came to understand most, if not all, of the decisions Burnham made.

According to Green, for the remainder of this week, he would be collaborating with the People’s National Congress Reform to heighten awareness of the work President Burnham did, since it is commonly believed that young people have not had the opportunity to understand many of the things he did.

Mayor Green says he personally believes that many young people are clueless as to what the former President’s dream was for Guyana, and some of the difficulties he faced.

Mayor Green pointed out, though, that it was the oil crisis in the 70s that really spurred many of Burnham’s ambitious projects.

The first Carifesta which was hosted by Guyana was in fact Burnham’s brainchild, a fact that will be well presented when a symposium is held on Friday at City Hall.

“On Friday, the lead discussion will deal with that and several other matters that we think are being left in the background…”

Mayor Green said that he is also prepared to be questioned on whether or not Burnham was a dictator, even as he noted that some words are used in an emotional sense.

“What I know of Burnham is that he consulted much more than his successors, both on the PNC and PPP side.

That I can say from my personal experience. Once he had consultations, he moved forward to get things done.

So people who call him a dictator should indicate to me the things that Burnham did that identified him as a dictator.”

According to Mayor Green, he could make a pronouncement on such a matter if he were to examine whether Burnham would have restricted a mayor from functioning.

Compare this to a move where a municipal car park is seized by the Government after 17 years of operation by the municipality, Mayor Green said.

The mayor said that he also plans to address the fact that Burnham was the one who first initiated a ‘Grow More’ venture.

He explained that the former President would go around on horseback handing out seeds to citizens and encouraging them to plant. Green noted that Burnham was, in fact, the first person to bring the tilapia fish to Guyana.

Mayor Green says that, unless people are able to understand all of their history, they are unlikely to have the spiritual strength to really understand who they are and to go forward confidently into the future.

For this reason, he noted, there is a need to ensure that “we do not develop an imperial attitude which again can serve to distort the approach to past experiences.”

And since Burnham died some 23 years ago, Mayor Green said, he is making a special appeal to young people to come out to the symposium.

He said that young people may have heard different things from different people about Burnham, adding that they can in fact clarify the stories they have heard and gather a better idea of what Guyana was during that era.