After reading a letter in the Kaieteur News about Carifesta by a Lurlene Nestor in which it was stated that no mention was made by the current President of Guyana about L.F.S. Burnham being the Godfather of Carifesta, I started wondering whether the writer was one of those women protesting during the opening of this auspicious event that will certainly go down in Guyana’s history. Why I am saying this is because nowhere in the letter did the writer mention the shame we all felt as Guyanese when two women, in front of other international guests, behaved the way they did at this event which Burnham started.

If Lurlene Nestor is not a protester and is a member of the Opposition or supports the Opposition party then she should have known that the Opposition’s call for Carifesta to be protested was the wrong thing to do and there is a time and place for everything.

No one is denying the role Burnham played in Carifesta, and what those women did put a different light to his efforts. It is very, very ironic because I believe that Burnham would have never tolerated this kind of behaviour at his event, therefore the current President is quite tolerant. I hope that Lurlene Nestor is not one of these protesters or was one behind it. I think that protesting is fine but it has its time and place and no one is going through suffering to such a magnitude that they had the right to embarrass this country like that.

If Burnham was respected for his work, then those behind the protest would not have made the decision to do such a thing whatever problems we face here. It shows what respect they have for the man. Burnham had good initiatives and was well-spoken yes (my parents in the olden days told me about them) but the Opposition needs to take their heads out of the sand and realise that many of his decisions were largely flawed and thus, overshadowed his good works. One such flaw was that he was a dictator and exercised his powers to the maximum. In the long run he damaged the country more than doing good.

The entire Caribbean knows that, this is why Burnham is not really focused on much. This is all people think of when they hear his name. Carifesta was obviously one of his good initiatives and the Opposition followers should have felt good that this initiative is being held here again, instead of trying to make fools of themselves. Celebrate the man’s good work and acknowledge it first. Stop disrespecting him and his work and stop asking people to do so before you do. Set the example! Shame on those women and shame on you Lurlene Nestor if you support that…and I suspect you do. I don’t support any party, but I think the Opposition does stupid things sometimes and this was one of them, and any Guyanese can see that the decision to protest Carifesta was silly and one of the most shameful things. You, Nestor should talk about that!
L. J. WRIGHT