Burnham held forth eruditely about his 10-year plan

Dear Editor,

Your usually very knowledgeable columnist, Dr. Henry B. Jeffrey, in his last Future Notes column did well to highlight the importance of vision. He commented upon its lack in Mr. Granger’s presentation of their 10 points plan for 2030, but he then asked, “Can you imagine Forbes Burnham or Cheddi Jagan delivering upon such a grandiose topic as a ‘decade of development.’(?)”

I can’t verify Cheddi doing it, possibly because there was limited broadcast facilities available to him, but I do remember listening to Forbes over government-controlled radio – on the evening of December 31, 1979, before the dawn of the 1980s, at the Square of the Revolution (Cuffy Square) – holding forth eruditely about the 10-year plan. By then, 1979, blackouts were not merely like what we experience today, it happened in Georgetown for days on end; and it was the beginning of the era when we grew accustomed to not having water in the house, we had to lower the outside pipe and dig a hole to place the bucket to catch the trickling water.

Forbes was in his element. His oratorial magnificence portrayed a 1990 with water and electricity, things Georgetown took for granted by independence. It remains in my memory, because of one remark he made. I didn’t know what possessed him to assert to the faithful, “And comrades, if you think I will not be there (in 1990 to see all he depicted), I will be there!”

As a studiously religious person it was remarkable to me that mortal man could make such an asseveration. As we know, shortly after the security forces conducted searches on some religious leaders in 1985, he made it about halfway to 1990.

Yours faithfully,

Alfred Bhulai