Dear Editor,
I deemed it necessary to make no comment on the Enmore Martyrs event which took place on June 16, 1948. But after listening to the address by President Ali and the powerful statement in Village Voice on June 16, titled “GTUC’s Fight for Recognition: Enmore Martyrs remembered 78 years later amid debate over legacy”, I thought I should break my silence with these brief personal recollections; I remember as a student of the secondary at the eastern extreme of Brickdam, looking through the window of the Geography room, I recall the procession, including the hearses bearing the bodies of the five victims of the shooting at Enmore stopping outside of the Durban Park race course (now Square of the Revolution), I recognised Dr. Cheddi Jagan and Jane Phillips-Gaye. They addressed the gathering, before moving south into the Le Repentir Cemetery.
Later in the 1970’s it was Burham’s idea that triggered the erection of the Enmore Martyrs Monument at its present site. Many of us became dubious tradesmen as we enthusiastically helped to complete the monument on time. On these occasions the least we can do is acknowledge and recognise those whose idea it was. This consistent denial of the good ideas of others is unhelpful and inconsistent with the trumpet call of One Guyana. The prophet Kahill Gibran reminds us with these words: Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler.