Without a doubt!!

Chief,what made him fail????

I agree that Burnham was a visionary when he said that people must eat our home grown produce. Today, our government is saying the same thing. However, Guyanese have been eating our home grown produce since before Burnham came into power. Burnham had wanted to save on imported food and encourage people to produce more food locally. Burnham idea on free education was good, but he never practice what he preached, because he was eating foreign food while he tell the people to eat locally. Guyanese have been eating every kind of produce that is on display above form the time agriculture began in Guyana. Guyanese can never forget about pumpkin, baigan, bora, etc. There are some good things we can learn from Burnham, but being a visionary to nationalize the entire country is NOT one of thing Guyanese would like to revisit.

Jagan communism.

Guyana's political culture has been plagued by one-upmanship. When Burnham got his "Buy Local" campaign going, the PPP gave half-hearted support. They criticized import restrictions on wheat flour for instance, although rice producers benefited from high demand of rice flour. But in 1983 I came across a 1960 report in the PPP Thunder newspaper where then Premier Cheddi Jagan was urging Guyanese to switch from imported wheat flour to local rice and cassava flour.

I showed the report to Gail Teixeira at Freedom House and she showed it to Dr Jagan in my presence. Of course, Dr J defended what he said in 1960, adding that he was not against Burnham's Buy Local drive but the way it was done. He said he didn't ban wheat flour as Burnham did.

Well, we can analyze that remark.

Burnham banned wheat flour and local rice flour production increased greatly, enriching lots of rice people and middlemen.

Jagan didn't ban wheat flour but no one heeded his call to consume or produce rice flour.

Who had more vision on this particular BUY LOCAL matter?

 

Gilly thanks for exposing Cheddie Jagan.

Don't look at it that way, Chief. I'm not exposing anyone. I'm simply recalling a personal experience and the lesson drawn from it.

Those two rivals were thick in the one-upmanship game.

Jagan was preaching socialism while Burnham and D'Aguiar were American imperialist darlings.

Then Burnham took up socialism and got more tangible support from Jagan's socialist friends in Russia, Cuba, etc.

Jagan first preached nationalization while Burnham was assuring British and Canadian and American multinationals that their businesses were going to be safe in his hands.

Then Burnham started nationalization that Jagan initially preached.

Jagan started University of Guyana which Burnham attacked as Jagan night school. Jagan charged tuition fees at UG.

Burnham took over UG, built a campus and abolished tuition fees.

I can go on. The point is, Jagan and Burnham each tried to put down the other and show who could do better. One-upmanship.

When Burnham died, Desmond Hoyte was in no mood to continue that game.

He should have never nationalized big private companies in Guyana, he joined with Jagan and destroyed the economic engine of the country. These companies were key to Guyana.

 

Power Drunk.........

Burnham may have been a visionary but unfortunately he surrounded himself with incompetent people who drove the country into the ground. Time may have also played a role. Jagan may have been a stricter communist but time allowed him to make the necessary changes so when he came to power in 1992, the world had dramatically changed allowing him to adapt a friendlier economic module. Guyana was on a good rebound and that rebound continued even now. The trouble is that the leaders are more concerned with their own corrupted lives than where Guyana needs to go.

If Burnham had incompetent people around him what you call this cow pen currently in office?

The dog shit parade?

Are you denying that Burnham had incompetent people around him?

You really do have difficulty with comprehension don't you?

 

What did you get on aptitude tests in Guyana -10?

Did you really find the need to make a fool of yourself necessary?

Time was not the reason that Cheddie abandoned communism and adapted a "friendlier economic module" (model). The IMF and The World Bank mandated an economic framework for the country to follow under Hoyte, namely the Economic Recovery Program (ERP). Cheddie was forced to continue with the ERP as a condition of him assuming the leadership.

Same thing. Had those conditions not be in place when he got elected, he may have stuck to his old inclinations. The Berlin wall was now down and the USSR did not exist anymore.

Amazing how some people decipher events. So no one can be considered foolish for their opinions. 

What you think opinion mean Sagga bai?

A view?

aarite bai.

Not the same thing. You made it sound like Cheddi became reformed with time and world events also helped to make him change. The reality is far from that. It was specifically the ERP instituted by the IMF and World Bank that forced him to fall in line and adapt their requirements. They had to accept these conditions because Guyana was up to its neck in debt to the IMF and World Bank. Had nothing to do with the Berlin Wall and the USSR falling. Those events just happened to be around the same time but the ERP was already in force since 1988.

I don't see where in my initial post I made it seem that Jagan became reformed. If anything, I insinuated that the surrounding circumstances changed his communist position. 

You said that Cheddie may have been a stricter communist but time allowed him to make the necessary changes. Making the necessary changes from one system to another is becoming reformed but that's not really important. The main point is that the ERP forced Cheddi to abandon communist policies and not prevailing world events such as the Berlin Wall and USSR falling since they both came after the ERP was instituted. The IMF and World Bank had already laid down the framework for Guyana to follow by the time communism fell. If you were fed that pill about communism falling being the reason for Cheddi to reform, then you were fooled.

Alright. I stand corrected.

Again kzsamaababa struggling wid comprehension. Get your act together for heavens sake will you?

Fellas there was no reform for Cheddie he was a dunce and a misguided selfish fellow and that played out to the end.

 

That is why he chose to embrace the Burnham constitution and that is why we have this mess in Guyana going on up to today.

 

Cheddi was no visionary he was a selfish dunce. I can give a litany of examples of this.

After the demise of Communism and International Socialism and befor Cheddi came to power in 1992 one Socialist luminary, Jamaica's Michael Manley, had already change course. While the IMF/World Bank's Economic Reform Program's conditions and the Paris Club debt write-off conditions were mandatory, Cheddi's political life itself reformed somewhat - juts like Manley's. He was still for lifting the conditions of poor working class but he also would have allowed the private sector to be part of wealth generation instead of State behemoths that lead to corruption and crony State Capitalism.

What Cheddi woulda, coulda, shoulda done after the USSR disintegrated is all speculation. He was not in any way bound to follow the reforms that Manley instituted in Jamaica. Cheddi could have followed the course of Fidel, who was his closest ally, and stick to socialism instead. What we do know for a fact is that the 1988 ERP requirements were mandatory and he was bound to follow them. 

3 blind mice

Amazing. HM_Redux putting down Cheddie who was the leader of a country in two eras. Where is HM_Redux on the professional spectrum compared to Cheddie?

 

* Because of Cheddi's Marxism/Leninism nonsense the US kept Burnham in power and turned a blind eye to his rigging and his oppression of a certain segment of the Guyanese population.

 

RE: BURNHAM

 

* 40% of the Guyanese public admired the guy when he was in power, and onto today 40% of the Guyanese people are crazy about him.

 

* Oh well! Mass murderer Charles Mansion had his admiring fans too and so did despots like Hitler and Stalin.

 

* Thankfully in today's Guyana, 50+1% of the Guyanese people adore the PPP and that's all that matters if you are a PPP supporter.

 

Rev

 

LFS had poor vision when it came to developing the country and lifting the living standard of the people.

 

Billy:

 

* FORBES BURNHAM WAS A TALKER.

 

* He was a pretentious nitwit who fooled and conned a lot of people with his fancy words.

 

* But when it came to leadership, Burnham was woefully lacking.

 

* It takes courage for a leader to fulfil his vision. Burnham lacked courage and like you said his vision was poor.

 

* Burnham was more enamored by his POSITION---he made himself the MAXIMUM LEADER.

 

* LOSERS CONTINUE TO DROOL OVER THE GUY.

 

Rev

His biggest mistake was joining hands with the "critical supporting" PPP and the Commie Comrades who crossed the aisle from the PPP to the PNC. After Fidel brokered a deal with them and the Soviets to move the country further left, they nationalized the main industries and the economy fell apart from there. They could not attract any Foreign Direct Investment after that for fear of any new investment being seized by the government. Added to that, the small business owners withdrew their money and ran to North America, leaving a huge vacuum where there once was private capital investment. 

Way better off than any of you bottom crawlers who continue to blow cheddi because you are blind followers and can only understand and conform to group think.

 

The PPP has done wonders for the Sugar cane industry and Cane cutters the past 20 years.

 

Boy you really are dunce.

Mars it look like you may just love for the white master  to return to bull whip you behind with his field horse whip.  While you are at it make sure you wash his feet before you bend down and kiss them.

If you can't handle the truth it's not my fault.

 

You must have enjoyed the buggering the White Soviets gave you as a youngster and now you're still yearning for it in your old age.

Burnham ideas were good, but the legacy of how the PNC attained power was an albatross around their neck.  Couple that with the real and perceived institutional and street racism, and the fact that the producing segment of the population (Indians) were the primary victim, every policy was doomed to be bogged down in a quagmire.