Dear Editor,
On this the fifty-fifth anniversary of Guyana’s independence from Great Britain, I write to inform some and remind others of this hard-won achievement. By the time Dr. Cheddi Jagan was elected Premier in 1953 in the first election conducted with universal suffrage, the struggle for self-determination had been building for years, led by strikes on the sugar estates. Only a few months later, the constitution was suspended and his government overthrown. His talk of independence and self-determination was not to be tolerated.
The United States, which was intended by President Franklin Roosevelt to be the ally of the emerging nations, was recruited after his death by Winston Churchill into the new Cold War, and the US government began to see every independence struggle as a communist plot, be it in Vietnam, Kenya, or British Guiana. So, the new “Atlanticist” alliance delayed Guyanese independence again and again, and conspired to incite a conflict between the two major ethnic groups, Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese, which led to the fratricidal bloodletting and burnings of “ The Disturbances” from 1962 – 1964. Several trips by our leaders to Lancaster House, London to sue for independence were met with filibusters, etc., and before too long, many of them, Jagan and his Deputy Premier Benn included, earned the distinction of becoming political prisoners. Only after the chosen puppet Forbes Burnham was in installed into power, would Independence be granted. (Even so, a magnanimous Dr. Jagan embraced PM Burnham after the Union Jack was lowered and the Golden Arrowhead raised.)
Brindley Benn, saw through, exposed, and loudly denounced the aforementioned strategy repeatedly. In a clarion call for national unity, he had proclaimed back in 1958 that “British Guiana can make a unique contribution to history only if we weld ourselves into one people, one nation, and pursue one destiny,” during his tenure as Minister of Community Development and Education. And so, Guyana’s national motto “One People, One Nation, One Destiny” was born. It is important today that this history be told, and understood. My husband, Daniel, and I have written a book entitled “The Ants Will Come and Tell Me” to set the record straight. Viva Guyana!
Sincerely,
Lena Platt.
