Everything about Forbes Burnham totally explained
Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham (
20 February 1923–
6 August 1985) was a
Guyanese political leader and leader of
Guyana from
1964 until his death, as the
Prime Minister from
1964 to
1980 and as
President from 1980 to 1985.
Personal life and education
Burnham, an Afro-Guyanese, was born in Kitty, a suburb of Georgetown, East
Demerara, Guyana as one of three children. He attended the prestigious and the colony's elite
Queen's College. In 1942, he won the Guiana Scholarship as the colony's top student. Burnham received a law degree from the
University of London in 1948.
He was married to Viola Burnham, who was also involved in politics. He has three children, Roxane, Annabelle, and Francesca from his first marriage to Bernice Lataste. His second marriage to Viola produced two daughters, Melanie and Ulele and later a son Kamana (adopted).
Early years: The People's Progressive Party (PPP)
Burnham was one of the founding leaders of the
People's Progressive Party (PPP), which was launched on
January 1 1950; the
Indo-Guyanese labor leader
Cheddi Jagan became PPP Leader, while Burnham became its Chairman. In 1952, Burnham became the president of the party's affiliated
trade union, the British Guiana Labour Union, in 1952. In 1953, the PPP won 18 of 24 seats in the first election permitted by the British colonial government. In the short-lived PPP government that followed, Burnham served as Minister of Education.
In
1955, there was a split in the PPP between Burnham and Jagan. As a result, Burnham went on to form the
People's National Congress in
1958 entering its first election under that name in
1961.
Leader of Guyana: The People's National Congress (PNC)
In the
1964 elections, while Jagan's PPP won the highest percentage of the vote (46% to the PNC's 41%), it didn't win a majority. Burnham was able to form a coalition with the United Force (TUF) who won the remaining 12% of the votes and became premier of British Guiana on
14 December. On
May 26,
1966, British Guiana became an independent country and was renamed to Guyana.
Burhnam at first pursued moderate policies. However, one of his first acts upon independence was a sweeping "National Security Act" giving the police the power to search, seize and arrest anyone virtually at will. He won full power in
1968, although the elections were condemned by many as fraudulent due to a large number of voter irregularities (such as questionable numbers of overseas voters on the rolls). In
1970, he veered sharply to the left and established strong relations with
Cuba, the
Soviet Union and other communist countries. On
February 23 of that year, he declared Guyana a "co-operative republic." Adopting a policy of
autarky, he banned all forms of imports into the country, including flour and varieties of rice. Burnham also nationalized the major industries that were foreign owned and controlled, reducing the private sector's share of the economy to 10 percent by
1979. Burnham's policies acted as a catalyst for the mass exodus in the 1980s that saw the country's population reduced significantly.
In
1974, Burnham declared the PNC to be paramount and socialist. He passed a referendum in
1978 which made it harder for his party to lose power, but there was wide evidence that the referendum was tainted by fraud. In
1980, the constitution was changed to make the president chief executive officer. He was elected president that year in elections condemned as fraudulent by international observers.
Burnham remained President of Guyana until his death. He died on
August 6 1985 after undergoing throat surgery in
Georgetown Hospital.
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