Norton roasts Granger over ‘fatherless nation’ claims

-calls it betrayal of Burnham, Jagan

Former General Secretary of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Aubrey Norton has flayed Opposition Leader David Granger, for his comments that there was no father or mother of Guyana, saying that the MP, who is running for leadership of the party, is denying its founder Forbes Burnham his rightful place in history.
Speaking at a lecture series at Parliament last week, Granger said: “There is no ma or pa for independence here. There is no father of the nation, there is no mother of the nation, and I think we need to unlearn this myth.”
But Norton, who has been overlooked for a seat in the National Assembly, said in a letter to the editor that every nation has its national heroes and founding fathers, and that it is a part of the process and mystique of nation-building and identification.
“In a most strange presentation on the history of this country, Mr. David Granger has denied Mr. Burnham, Dr. Jagan, Mr. Critchlow and Mr. ARF Webber their rightful places in the history of the nation and in nation-building.”
Norton, a former PNCR MP, said most people would contend that the nation has ‘father figures,’ whose actions, activities and vision most influenced the nation “as we have known it and envisioned it to be”.
Most would contend that at least two of the above-mentioned four would qualify for that title. “….as far as I am concerned, at a very minimum, Mr. Burnham has to be acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of this country. The things he did or caused to be done by way of policies, slogans, priorities and constructs-ideological and sectoral, set a tone and placed us on a path that would have been very different if he had not entered politics or if he had migrated, for example,” Norton asserted.
According to him, whatever one thinks of Burnham’s policies and whatever grouse one may have against him as a person, there can be no doubt as to his influence-for good, according to some and for ill according to others. “This is understandable in a country with a divided psyche. However, no useful historical analysis can ignore his influence.”
He said during his lifetime, Burnham stood head and shoulders above every other politician in Guyana on the policy front and in the international arena, as well as on the floor of Parliament where he was unmatched. “In an extreme form of winners’ justice, the PPP continues to seek to displace him with Dr Jagan. In doing so, they have to demonise him and steal his achievements, but in that effort they have at several points to re-write our history. Even so, they cannot deny his influence. Whatever is left after that, his achievements and impact still overshadow all others. That is why we have to have every mischief done by the PPP governments since 1992, prefaced with, or justified by, ‘28 years of PNC rule’.”

Norton contended that in the very region where politicians such as Eugenia Charles and Tom Adams attacked him for his policies, the public, including Dominicans and Barbadians, their own citizens, elected him ‘man of the century’ from a field that included Fidel Castro and Michael Manley. “No sensible person can deny Fidel Castro’s role in shaping Cuba as we know it. Few would bother to try. It is another matter to say that we like him. This is what makes Mr. Granger’s effort so dangerous.”
Dangerous views
Granger’s views of Burnham in this instance are especially unorthodox because he is seeking to be elected as leader of Burnham’s party, to be one of Burnham’s successors, Norton said, noting that Granger’s position would have been understandable if he was seeking to be leader of another political party, such as the Alliance For Change (AFC).
“Why would an aspiring PNC leader take such a position in a party still manned by and large by unreconstructed Burnhamites? Indeed, the battle for the focus on poverty and the small man, the place for African Guyanese in the body politic and for the control of our destiny is a battle with a fuse kindled by Burnham. If there is one thing about which the PNCR is unanimous, it is that the leadership and membership of the party see him as one of the founding fathers, if not the founding father,” Norton said.
He said one thing is certain, given his theme, Granger chose the venue for this opening salvo, rather well. “Many of us are waiting to see how he proposes to sell that assertion in the upcoming PNCR Congress. Is he going to be hypocritical and praise Burnham for the sake of pleasing the members of Burnham’s party? More importantly, one can only assume that he is proposing to deliver this message to the impending PNCR Biennial Congress from the 27th to the 29th, at which he will seek to be elected leader of the PNCR! In the interim, I call on the leader of the party and the general secretary to say whether they share these views aired by Mr. Granger,” he stated.