US diplomatic cables in 1973 on the launch of the Guyana National Service (GNS) expressed reservations about it being sustainable.
A cable on November 14, 1973 to the State Department by then Ambassador Spencer Matthews King noted that at a November 4 session of a special congress of the ruling PNC, Prime Minister Forbes Burnham announced further details of the recently proposed national service. The cable released by WikiLeaks said Burnham told delegates that there would be six categories of the GNS:
- Voluntary Youth Brigade for primary school children between the ages of eight and 14
- National Cadet Corps – for youths between the ages of 14 and 18
- Young Workers Corps – for youths who do not attend secondary school
- National Pioneer Corps for secondary school graduates including those entering civil service or the University of Guyana and unemployed.
- Rehabilitation Corps – for handicapped youth or those in reform school
- Special Service Corps – for those with special skills (ie) doctor.
King said that while Burnham offered no precise timetable for the implementation of the plan he did state that it would begin with ministers.
The cable reported Burnham as saying that ministers “must get out into the fields with the people” and that each minister would be required to spend one month each year “in the field.”
King said that Burnham also addressed opposition to the scheme by saying that the National Service was not an “attempt to put (the) nation in a straightjacket” but to mobilize and train for the rebuilding of Guyana.
In his comment, the Ambassador, noting that there were many questions unanswered about the scheme, stated “it is not clear how PNC govt, not particularly noted for its organizational skills will move national service from planning to performance stage.”
King added that as was too often the case, planning for national service had begun without adequate consideration or resources available.
“Present govt capabilities would suggest modest beginning for national service is all that can be realistically expected,” King stated.
In an earlier cable on October 19, 1973 reporting that Burnham announced compulsory national service on October 17 at the opening of the University of Guyana’s Faculty of Education building, King reported that the Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister had said that it would also be required of persons desirous of entering the civil service. Settlements were to be patterned after the Israeli Kibbutzim.
King in his comment noted that the national service programme had been suggested in a 1971 budget speech and publicly announced by Burnham in April, 1972 at a party congress.
The Ambassador added that it would be the first tangible step to involve the nation‘s youths in national development and said “Burnham may also be seeking to ensure that (the) University of Guyana, now with five hundred full time students, does not become (a) source of radicalism or academic criticism.”
King went on to say that “…financial and administrative obstacles are likely to be greater than Burnham publicly admits.”
While thousands of Guyanese would pass through its ranks and laud its virtues, the GNS progressively became more difficult to sustain and its major centres closed one after the other beginning in the 1980s.
