Dear Editor,
In a letter in SN by Rev Gideon Cecil captioned ‘The wrong political ideology embraced by our first two leaders destroyed Guyana economically and socially’ and dated August 19, the Reverend said “We would have been better off today if we were still ruled by the British.”
And the British were made better off by the colonization of peoples, by the enslavement of peoples who worked to death to ensure the historical accumulation of capital that accrued to the Britain and the USA. Neo-colonization continued this policy. The enslaved probably unwisely rebelled against the god-fearing colonialists.
Look at the support of these colonialist countries for apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia. Look at how America overthrew the first independent Black state of Haiti. And finally, he may want to look at the role of the Christian world and the good things it has done for the non-Christian world.
I agree with the Reverend’s take on Burnham. When we look at South Africa we can list the number of good things that the white racist government did, but that would not change the overall picture of apartheid.
The Reverend should now explain how beautiful capitalist and democratic USA joined with the Marxist Burnham and the capitalist UF to overthrow the Marxist PPP.
I however disagree with his take on the ideological issue. In fact he should explain the number of dictatorships put in place by the USA. Not only that, he should explain the reality of 8 rich countries, another 12 developing countries and about 150 poor capitalist countries.
He should explain how one capitalist country with 6 per cent of the population consumes over 25 per cent of the world’s resources, and how the 20 per cent richest countries in the world utilize the bulk of the world’s resources. The Reverend will appreciate that very little is left for the remaining 80 percent and this becomes worse for those at the bottom when one considers the growing inequality in these countries.
The Reverend will appreciate that by the time of the first nationalization by Burnham in the seventies Guyana was already facing deep and chronic deficit at the budgetary and at the balance of payments level. Guyana was in deep crisis before anything resembling socialism was implemented.
Yours faithfully,
Rajendra Nauth Bisessar
