Forbes Burnham - Burnham's Guyana

Burnham's Guyana

Burnham at first, pursued moderate policies. However, one of his first acts upon independence was a sweeping "National Security Act" giving the police the power to search, seize and arrest anyone virtually at will. He put a fraud machinery into action and grabbed full dictatorial powers during the rigged 1968 election (allowing overseas ballots, padding voter lists, and one person to cast proxy ballots for up to three others) becoming a brutal strongman and promoting a police state in which opposition members were murdered. In 1970, he established strong relations with Cuba, the Soviet Union, North Korea and other countries to implement a Socialist form of government. On February 23 of that year, he declared Guyana a Socialist "Co-Operative Republic" referring to himself as "the Comrade Leader". Several cycles of "free and fair" general elections were rigged through ballot box tampering despite foreign observers who were systematically harassed and abused.

In the 1970s, Burnham embarked upon a policy of austerity which bankrupted the local economy costing jobs and a subsequent "brain drain" of the educated class to the US, Canada, and Great Britain. He began by nationalizing two foreign-owned bauxite companies, American-owned Reynolds Guyana Mines Ltd and Canadian-owned Demerara Bauxite Company (DEMBA) This move caused the United States to reduce its financial aid to the country from $10.5 Million to just over $350,000 and catapulting the regime into default of international debts to the International Monetary Fund.

In order to fight growing balance of payments issues, he promoted yet another policy in 1973 - the "feed, clothe and house" the nation policy by 1976. As a result of this policy, he subsequently banned importation of basic food items like flour, split peas, cooking oil, butter, cheese, salted fish, pickled meats, preserved fruits, most canned items, and any food item perceived as "luxury", without a program of producing them domestically.

The general elections due in 1978 was postponed by Burnham, citing the need for a new constitution. A rigged referendum was carried out authorizing Burnham to change the constitution which was promulgated in October 1980 making Burnham Executive President. Burnham now had supreme powers over all constitutional agencies. Under his reign, there were nightly power outages known as "blackouts", and it was during this time that Burnham's thugs robbed and pillaged. Among these thugs were The House of Israel, a black group led by "Rabbi Washington", the American fugitive David Hill. Burnham critic Martin Carter, who was beaten by thugs, wrote in the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) paper, Dayclean, 1979, that under Burnham, corruption had become “a way of life, in which people were made to accept that stealing, cheating, lying, bearing false witness…was a positive sign of loyalty to the regime…”

Repression of political activity advanced to include murder of political opponents as exhibited by the attempted murder of University of Guyana lecturer, Dr. Joshua Ramsammy (PPP) in 1971, the murders of Edward Dublin and Ohene Koamaand, and assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney in 1980.