Forbes Burnham: Human or demon?
By Mellissa Ifill
Stabroek News
March 6, 2003
Few individuals in Guyanese history, more so political history, have generated such controversy as Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham. More-over, few individuals have had such a lasting impact on the structure and character of the Guyanese society. For many analysts, respect for his intellectual capacity and achievements and his ability to catapult Guyana into regional and international prominence, warred with his seeming obsession for political power and his scant regard for democracy and political fair play.
Burnham, in both life and death aroused both admiration and scorn, he was revered and ridiculed, perceived as a deity and a demon, and, in this the month when Burnham would have celebrated his 80th birth anniversary, this article offers a brief glimpse of the factors that shaped the early life of this legendary Caribbean statesman. Since it is impossible in the limited space of this article to properly explore the contributions of such a complex and intriguing personality, this article will therefore limit itself to reviewing the early life of the first Prime Minister and President of independent Guyana. Subse-quent articles will explore his perceived contribution and injury to pre-and-post-independence Guyana.
Born in Kitty, British Guiana on February 20, 1923 to James Ethelbert Burnham and Rachel Abigail Sampson, Forbes attended Kitty Metho-dist Primary School, Central High School and Queen’s College. His father, James Burnham was a respected community leader. He was the Head Teacher for 37 years of the same primary school attended by Burnham - Kitty Methodist Primary - as well as a lay preacher in the Methodist Church and a member of the Village Coun-cil. His father had a tremendous impact upon young Burnham’s life. Although James Burnham’s myriad roles did not provide wealth for his family, Forbes learnt some valuable lessons which guided both his own life and his management of the lives of Guyanese after independence. It was under his father’s tutelage that Forbes internalised the middle class belief that education was the mechanism through which progress and advancement would be achieved. Burnham also witnessed his father as a village-leader which saw him serving the community as judge, intermediary and counsellor. He became aware of the potential and limits of the local government bodies and the relative power of central government.
This exposure to governance, albeit on a village level, stirred the imagination of young Forbes who signalled at an early age where his ambitions lay. Forbes Burnham’s sister Jessie Burn-ham, published a scathing commentary of her brother after they parted ways not long she joined his faction of the split PPP. In a pamphlet entitled “Beware my Brother Forbes,” Jessie Burnham remembered Forbes as an ambitious, selfish and boastful child who once announced his six lofty life goals to his disbelieving father who urged him to moderate these goals. Forbes however believed that he had the capacity to achieve them all. These goals were:
* To win the Percival Exhibition
* To be Mayor of George-town
* To be Chief Justice of British Guiana
* To be the first Prime Minister of the West Indian Federation
* To be the Prime Minister of British Guiana
Jessie Burnham also remarked that Forbes was extremely close to their mother, who was protective of him because of his small size and the tendency of schoolmates, who were jealous of his intellectual achievement, to victimise him with daily beatings. In fact, because of the potential harmful impact of these beatings on his health, his parents removed him from Central High and enrolled him in Queen’s College.
Forbes Burnham’s sojourn at Queen’s College was an eventful one and the character of this elite school had a tremendous effect on his social development. Burnham quickly recognised that his father’s powerful position in his village meant nothing to the school population which was peopled by students whose fathers were in the upper echelons of British Guiana society and who were generally from certain ethnic/colour groups. As a poor, African boy, Burnham was determined to carve out his niche and he used his scholastic acumen and his oratorical skills to make his mark on the school, win friends and protect him from the cruelty of the social stratification in the school which would have placed him at the bottom of the ladder. Forbes Burnham excelled at QC and after his first year, continued his education at the school by way of scholarship. Burnham then won the Guyana scholarship for his performance at the London external exams in the upper sixth form - an achievement that was no mean feat considering the economic challenges faced by both himself and his family. Burnham was unable to immediately take up his scholarship because the world was at war and he taught at QC until 1945 while he did his Bachelors Degree from London University as an external student.
Burnham had a very successful academic career after entering London University. He gained his LLB (Honours) in 1947 and was called to the bar in 1948. His oratorical and leadership skills were again evident when he won the prestigious “Best Speaker’s Cup” in 1947 and was elected President of the West Indian Student Union in 1947 and 1948.
It was in London that Burnham, like many other potential colonial leaders of gained tremendous exposure to socialism in all its variants. Burnham’s attraction to this apparent radical, anti-imperialist and anti-colonial ideology was seen through his association with the British Communist Party and leftist British and international labour unions, and, through him leading delegations of West Indian students to the leftist World Youth Festival two years in succession. Burnham, along with other nationalist leaders advocated for comprehensive changes in the relationship between Britain and her colonies. No longer were they satisfied with piecemeal and ineffectual changes - they were determined to obtain autonomy.
Many of Burnham’s critics question his commitment to socialism from the inception - arguing that his attraction to the ideology was not pure, i.e., he pragmatically assessed the colonial struggle and recognised socialism’s utility and appeal to the masses. To reinforce their contention, critics further point the fact that Burnham never struggled with the masses in British Guiana or Britain and they conclude that socialism to Burnham was an expedient political strategy rather than a philosophical embrace.
Burnham returned home in the early months of 1949, established his law office and actively started participating in politics. Cognisant of the contributions of labour organisations to
politics globally, Burnham quickly established a connection to the first and most prominent labour union in Guyana, the British Guiana Labour Union. Burnham also recognised that the
most potent political force in British Guiana at the time was the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), which was led by the Jagans and he wanted to be associated with the group. Because of his brilliance, oratorical skill and appeal to the African Guyanese community, the Jagans also believed that Burnham could strengthen the work and appeal of the organisation. After the PAC decided to transform itself into a political party, it was agreed that Jagan would be the leader and Burnham would be the chairman, the strategy being to place the two most appealing Indian and African leaders in prominent positions in order to show the unity of the two races in the party and in the anti colonial struggle.
This show of unity however soon began to crack under the weight of the political ambitions of both Jagan and Burnham, with the latter being accused of wanting glory and power without putting in the hard work. One of Burnham’s greatest assets was his oratorical gift, and this he used to great effect in the towns but he seemed reluctant to use it in the country areas. Moreover, Burnham’s moderate stance on a number of issues undermined his credibility to the most radical members of the party. The political unity was unravelling and Jagan and Burnham were involved in machinations and manoeuvring to solicit maximum support from the members. It was at this point that Burnham began to assume the persona of a demon for some and for others he began to display an intellectual and political savvy that left all other political players in his wake.
