Forbes Burnham Research Institute in the making

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:01 by GxMedia

The Peoples National Congress Reform is moving ahead with plans to establish a Forbes Burnham Research Institute (FBRI) to promote the work and philosophy of Guyana’s first Executive President.

PNCR Leader, David Granger made the announcement Tuesday evening at a commemorative event for Burnham who died on August 6, 1985 at the age of 62 while undergoing surgery at the Georgetown Hospital.

The governing Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) has established the Cheddi Jagan Research Institute (CJRI) at Red House, his then official residence as premier of British Guiana in the 1960s.

Granger said his party and the non-governmental Forbes Burnham Foundation have already begun collaboration to set up the FBRI by February 2023, the centenary of Burnham. “We already have started collection of Forbes Burnham’s works…We have accumulated the stuff already,” he said.

The PNCR leader also told Demerara Waves Online News (www.demwaves.com) that plans are being to publish the second volume of Destiny to Mould, a collection of speeches by Burnham who was president from 1980 until his passing. DVDs and films featuring the life and work of the late leader are also on the cards.

“Our Founder Leader- the ideas that he employed and deployed at the start of this journey of Independence must not be erased and we will set up our own Forbes Burnham Research Institute to make sure that his ideas are preserved so young people can understand what he intended to do in this country,” he said.

The Burnham Education Scholarship Trust (BEST) has been already established.

In his address at the commemorative event, including a wreath laying ceremony at Burnham’s bust at the headquarters of the National Congress of Women (NCW), Granger traced the late PNC leader’s role in the national, regional and international spheres.

They included the fight against apartheid, the establishment of the 15-nation Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the 77-nation African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) group of former European colonies as well as Guyana chasing out Surinamese occupiers from the New River Triangle.