Billy Ram Balgobin posted:Kari posted:Hoyte did not have one ounce of socialist economic thought in his time as a politician. The Americans and Canadians had nothing to do with the reforms Hoyte initiated. The IMF and World Bank reforms started under Burnham due to the balance of payments situation of Guyana. Burnham did not follow a lot of the guidelines. Hoyte embraced these and then some. Note that the Cheddi Jagan Administration benefited from the debt write-off by the Paris Club. The Jagdeo Administration got relief through the HIPC initiative and had some debt write-off as noted in the IMF country report. So basically debt write-offs played a role in two Administrations (Cheddi and Jagdeo) while both the Burnham and Hoyte regimes had to make painful reforms without such benefit - like currency devaluations and restrictive government spending (that affected importation).
Hoyte was a key man in Burnham's gov't when it comes to formulating economic policies and drafting the controversial 1978 constitution. I don't know how you could stand up proudly and deny the facts about this man's role in the gov't. and his socialist-orientated mindset. It is certainly true that he began espousing free market policies during his time in gov't. especially during the 1992 elections campaign. He exaggerated his commitment to damper the PPP, but the opposition was doing the same about strengthening the private sector and making the engine of economic growth.
During those years in the seventies the gov't invested US$200 into national service which was more a military and ideological program to build support for the comrade leader LFS Burnham. Hoyte was not only the finance minister at that time but part and parcel of this major ideological stunt the PNC was pulling off. Show us one article written by Hoyte during his time in the PNC that touted free market as the solution or attacked the socialist program of the PNC?? If you can show us some evidence of his independent thinking we will be more than happy to look at it.
Hoyte indeed has some culpability in the bad things of the Burnham era. In a similar manner you can say Moses Nagmootoo has some culpability with the Jagdeo era that he criticized. That does not mean that Hoyte (like Moses) agreed with the general stratgic and certainly the tactics used by their bosses. So it should be clear that the PNC of that time was not homogeneous (like the PPP) and there were serious dissenters). There were a Hoyte (liberal) faction, a Hammy (goon) faction and a a Burnhamite faction that kept eyes on the other two factions and at times arbitrating between them (like (Elvin McDavid).
The other point you make is that Hoyte was socialist and you demand to see his writings then. I refer you to internal party debates (documentation of which you nor I are privy to, but was widely known) and his actions when President or the blatantly socialist things that would harm the economy that he fought against (like a 3-tiered foreign exchange rate). I worked with Hoyte on foreign trade and investment and from what I saw and interacted with him he was one of the liberal minds at that level along with Winston Murray, Pat Matthews and Carl Greenidge. Their Economics were not the South-south brand (of Walter Rodney's WPA), or the Jsaganite Moscow orthodoxy or the Burnhamite Maosist (like Kim Il whatever-his-name was).