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August 16, 2002: The former PNC strongman now turned moralist has another name. It is a German name. Do you know it? Well, don't let him know that I told you his secret. Hamilton Green's other name is . oops! Now wait a minute. I am not referring to a nickname which in proper standard English we call a sobriquet. In politics, sometimes politicians have more than one name. They have their birth certificate names, then, they have their political names. Let me give you an example. Suppose you have a British politician by the name of John Jones and he admires, thinks like, has a style like and believes that Winston Churchill is the greatest Englishman, then you can call John Jones, Winston Churchill.
Hamilton Green's political name is Albert Speer. Sorry I have to take you down memory lane on a boring trip but you obviously will not be happy at the end of this article if I don't tell you who or what is Albert Speer. I can't go on telling you about Nazi Germany for I wouldn't have space to tell you what this article is about so you have to figure out some historical things for yourself. Now Adolph Hitler was in a symphony hall and really liked the building. He enquired as to who was the designer and it so happened that the man was right there. So Adolph was introduced to Albert Speer, a young man with a doctorate in architecture. Adolph took to Hitler and made him a minister of the government. At the end of the war, Albert got ten years jail, came out, wrote his autobiography, and died in the arms of his prostitute-girl friend in a German hotel.
Albert died believing in the greatness of one of history's most evil, diabolical and inhuman leaders. Now are you surprise?
Well you shouldn't be. Leaders who abused their power are after all human beings. They have families and friends and of course, their have soft spots. A friend of a dictator could be forever loyal to him depending on the way the dictator treated him. Many wives and children stood by their dictators leader because they were good husbands and fathers. But these people are not qualified to write history and cannot be objective in the recording of history. Their stories of the emotional side of the dictator's personal life make for interesting reading, and this is all that their role should be confined to. Hamilton Green is not qualified to tell this country about the nature of the rule of Forbes Burnham. That should be left to the academic ferrets.
Mr. Green was at a tender age when he was swept off his feet by the machiavellian genius of Forbes Burnham. But this is where Mr. Green went wrong. He saw in Burnham what he wanted to see. Isn't this how human beings behave? We see what we want to see because it serves our purpose. Stuck to Burnham's apron coat like a bee to honey, Mr. Green's maturity unfolded largely because of this attachment. From obscurity and non-achievement at Queen's College to possession of a large Caribbean country given to him on a platter by his benefactor, Forbes Burham, Hamilton Green is too blind to see the other ingredients that make up Burnham's genius. We see only what we want to see. And that is the story of Hamilton Green's relation with Burnham
Mr. Green sounded like a schoolboy last week when on Burnham's death anniversary, he reminded us of the things Burnham built; roads, bridges, cultural institutions among other achievements. He repeats this same theme every year ad nauseum. But someone should give Hammie a plane ticket to South Africa. There he will see the fantastic cities like London, New York and Hong Kong that the fascist, white racists built in South Africa. How does Hammie feel about these men? They ruled South Africa with an iron fist and treated 22 million innocents Africans like animals. But they built bridges and Hammie sees that as an accolade. How funny Hammie. Wait a minute Hammie. You have to read more about your namesake Albert Speer. In the first year of his power, Hitler sacked 2,600 scientists with Jewish background yet during his rule, Germany maintained the lead in the world in the areas of jet propulsion, rockets, chemical agents, radio technology etc (Hitler's Gift: Scientists Who Fled Nazi Germany by J.Medawar & D. Pyke, Cohen Books, 1998). So if you use Hammie's methodology, Hitler was a good man because German science and technology soared under him.
Burnham ruled Guyana for twenty one years, yet every year, you have this mantra about Burnham's precocity by Hamilton Green. Green cannot point to anything in a large ocean of Burnham's perversities, immoralities, debaucheries, megalomanical propensities, and pathological display of arrogant and imperial power. Twenty one years are certainly not a fleeting moment. But Green only remembers the Linden Highway. Twenty one years are a lengthy period but Green only remembers the Demerara Harbour Bridge. I have the experience to live under Burnham's rule and Green's account is a ghost story. And ghosts do not exist.
Because of the huge mountain of research materials that exists on Burnham's rule, one is forced to question the sincerity of the metamorphosized (a term as you know, Burnham liked to use) or the new Hamilton Green. Green has a new bandwagon - the spiritual revival of the nation. But how serious should we take a national figure who had immense power under the worst Caribbean leader the Anglo-phone Caribbean gave birth to yet absolutely refuse to acknowledge the ill, wrongs, pain, suffering, humiliation, indignities and abuse he heaped upon his country. It is not like a controversial leader like Eric Williams or Reagan or Yeltsin where you have to look hard for your facts . The facts of Burnham's evil Roman empire stare you in the face. Change your spectacles Hammie.
There is one diabolical aspect of Burnham's rule that the next generation must be familiar with; Burnham was one of the worst small-minded leaders history has produced. He was a morbidly petty minded person who would go out of his way to spite a schoolboy who ran foul of him. I remember when I graduated with the President's Medal from UG, he sent to call me and I was rude to his courier. Burnham swore that I would never get a job in Guyana even though he didn't know me and I was no threat to him. He did the same thing to a group of us who returned to Guyana after serving the overthrown Maurice Bishop government in Grenada. Green is trying to keep Burnham's image alive to denigrate Hoyte but the point is that Desmond Hoyte was a better leader than Forbes Burnham. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. Hamilton Green, also known as Albert Speer.