Forbes Burnham

From: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition  |  Date: 2007

Positions that Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham has held:

     Prime Minister of Guyana (1964-1980)

     President of Guyana (1980-1985)

Forbes Burnham 1923-85, prime minister (1964-80) and president (1980-85) of Guyana, formerly British Guiana. His full name was Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham. Of African descent, he received a law degree (1947) from the Univ. of London. Returning home, he founded (1950), with Cheddi Jagan , a political party devoted to gaining independence from Great Britain. He broke with Jagan in 1955 to form a more moderate party. In the 1964 elections his party trailed Jagan's, but Burnham, overcoming Jagan's plurality by uniting with a small third party, was named prime minister. He led his country to independence (1966), and, despite vigorous opposition from Jagan, was reaffirmed as prime minister in elections in 1968 and 1973. With enormous aid from the United States, which had worked secretly to destabilize the Jagan government, he furthered public works and decreased the country's high unemployment rate. He promoted the nationalization of natural resources and attempted to ease racial tensions between blacks and majority Asian Indians by opening government positions to the Indians.

Author not available, BURNHAM, FORBES., The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2007

Cheddi Jagan, also known as Cheddi Berret Jagan (March 22, 1918 – March 6, 1997), was the chief minister (1957-1964) and president (1992-1997) of Guyana. The son of ethnic Indian sugar plantation workers, Jagan managed to attend Queen's College in Georgetown. He later studied at the Howard University Dental School in Washington, D.C., and Northwestern University in Chicago before returning home in the early 1940s.

Disgusted by conditions in British Guiana, he founded the People's Progressive Party with Forbes Burnham in 1950. He was elected to the colonial legislative body in 1947 and was the controversial leader of the Guyanese government in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Jagan won in a colonially administered election in 1953, but was removed from power militarily by Britain which, under strong behind-the-scenes pressure from the United States and the CIA, asserted that he had ties to the Soviet Union.^[1] Jagan resigned as British Guiana prime minister after 133 days. Britain suspended the constitution and chose an interim government. Jagan's movements were restricted to Georgetown from 1954 to 1957.

Having broken off links with the increasingly authoritarian Burnham, who divided the country among racial barriers, Jagan was active in the government as a labor activist and leader of the opposition. In 1992, after 28 years in opposition, he was elected president in the first free elections since independence. He died in office less than 5 years later.

His presidential tenure was characterized by the revival of the union movement and a re-commitment to education and infrastructure improvement. Towards the end of his life, he abandoned Marxism-Leninism and began to move his country to a free-market capitalist system.

He married Janet (née Rosenberg), a former member of a communist youth organization, in 1943, and the couple had two children, Nadira and Cheddi Jr. (who in turn produced five grandchildren, Cheddi B. Jagan II, Vrinda Jagan, Avasa Jagan, Alex Brancier, Natasha Brancier). Mrs. Jagan followed her husband's footsteps and held the positions of prime minister and president in 1997 (succeeded as president by Bharrat Jagdeo in 1999). A museum in the capital, Georgetown, celebrates Cheddi Jagan's life and work, complete with a replication of his office.

Jagan was also an important political author and speechwriter, and his publications include Forbidden Freedom: The Story of British Guiana, The West On Trial: My Fight for Guyana's Freedom, The Caribbean Revolution, and The USA in South America, among others.

Hugh Desmond Hoyte (March 9, 1929 – December 22, 2002) was a Guyanese politician. He served as Prime Minister of Guyana from 1984 to 1985 and President of Guyana from 1985 until 1992. He was born in Guyana's capital, Georgetown. He entered Parliament as a member of the People's National Congress in 1968 and soon began serving in the cabinet.

He was home affairs minister from 1969 to 1970, finance minister from 1970 to 1972, works and communications minister from 1972 to 1974, and economic development minister in 1974 to 1980. Hoyte concentrated on economic affairs during his political career. Following the December 1980 election he became one of five vice-presidents, with responsibility for economic planning, finance, and regional development, becoming a close associate of the President of Guyana and PNC leader Forbes Burnham.

In August 1984 he was made first vice-president and prime minister. President Burnham died suddenly on August 6, 1985, and Hoyte became President at a time when Guyana was undergoing prolonged economic and social problems. Tragically, three months before taking office, his two teenage daughters and sister-in-law were killed in a car crash on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway.

Shortly before Burnham's death, he and other members of the PNC had embarked on talks with the opposition People's Progressive Party attempting to achieve a national unity formula to deal with the country's problems. Hoyte announced his willingness to continue the dialogue, but also announced that a general election would be held on December 9. Responding to criticisms of previous elections as fraudulent, he agreed to certain reforms. Nonetheless, conduct of the election, which returned the PNC to power with an increased majority, was widely criticized for irregularities, and Hoyte's chances of achieving a national reconciliation were thereby diminished.

Hoyte was also foreign minister from 1990 until 1992. The 1992 elections were won by the People's Progressive Party, and its leader, Cheddi Jagan won presidential elections. Hoyte remained leader of the PNC until his death.

Hoyte was a Life Senator and a member of the Supreme Council of the Presidency of the International Parliament for Safety and Peace, an international organisation based in Italy.^{[citation needed]}

He also was the PNC candidate in the presidential elections of 1996 and 2001. He received second place both times (40.6% in 1996 and 41.7% in 2001). The PNC never regained the power that it had under the Burnham administration and his own administration. He died in Georgetown, Guyana.

Janet Rosalie Jagan (née Rosenberg on 20 October 1920 in Chicago, Illinois, United States) was President of Guyana from 19 December 1997 to 11 August 1999, and also served as Prime Minister from 17 March 1997 up until her appointment as President.

She was married to Cheddi Jagan, a Prime Minister and President of Guyana well known for his leftist leanings, from 1943 until his death in 1997. Janet Jagan was a communist political activist in her youth but moderated her stance later in her career. After Dr. Jagan's death, Janet Jagan was elected President and served in that capacity from 1997 to 1999, when she resigned for health reasons. She became the second female President in the history of South America (after Isabel Perón of Argentina) and the first to be democratically elected.

In the Guyanese context, Janet not only became the first female President of Guyana, but she was also the first U.S.-born and Caucasian woman to lead the nation. Janet handed the Presidency to Finance Minister Bharrat Jagdeo, marking the end of an important era in the ruling party's history and the beginning of a new and challenging one.

Being both Marxist and Jewish, she was the subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in the United States; there were false reports that she is related to Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.

Janet Jagan has long been involved with the literary and cultural life of Guyana. She published early Martin Carter poems in Thunder (which she edited) and supported the publication of early Carter collections such as The Hill of Fire Glows Red. She had long been a teller of stories to her children and grandchildren and was strongly concerned that Guyanese children should have books that reflected themselves. In 1993 Peepal Tree Press published her When Grandpa Cheddi was a Boy and Other Stories, followed by Patricia, the Baby Manatee (1995), Anastasia the Ant-Eater (1997) and The Dog Who Loved Flowers.

Bharrat Jagdeo (born 23 January 1964) is the socialist President of Guyana (since 11 August 1999). He had previously been a member of Janet Jagan's cabinet, and became president after Jagan resigned for health reasons. He is the youngest head of state of the Caricom countries. He is of Indian descent.

After obtaining a Master's in Economics from Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University in Moscow in 1990, Jagdeo returned to Guyana and worked as an Economist in the State Planning Secretariat until the People's Progressive Party/Civic election victory in 1992. After this he worked as an advisor to the Minister of Finance.

Some PPP supporters are upset because, as President, he has surrounded himself with many advisers associated with the former People's National Congress government.

Charges of crime, corruption, incompetence, mismanagement and nepotism have been made against Jagdeo's administration, as they have against all former Guyanese administrations. In March 2001, Bharrat Jagdeo won a second term in elections that underscored Guyana's bitter racial tensions. The re-election of Jagdeo, a member of the Indo-Guyanese majority, caused rioting among the minority Afro-Guyanese, who claimed widespread election fraud.

Jagdeo was re-elected for another five-year term on August 28, 2006, with People's Progressive Party garnering 54.6 percent of the votes and expanded its majority by two to 36 seats in the 65-member parliament. He was sworn in for another term on September 2. It should be noted that the 2006 national elections, unlike previous elections, were peaceful and according to foreign observers free and fair. Although there were some administrative issues, the peaceful nature of the elections was a major milestone for the country. [1] [2]