Guyana
Guyana's population is made up of five main ethnic groups--East
Indian, African, Amerindian, Chinese, and Portuguese. Ninety percent
of the inhabitants live on the narrow coastal plain, where
population density is more than 115 persons per square kilometer
(380 per sq. mi.). The population density for Guyana as a whole is
low--less than four persons per square kilometer. Although the
government has provided free education from nursery school to the
university level since 1975, it has not allocated sufficient funds
to maintain the standards of what had been considered the best
educational system in the region. Many school buildings are in poor
condition, there is a shortage of text and exercise books, the
number of teachers has declined, and fees are being charged at the
university level for some courses of study.
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Before the arrival of Europeans, the region was inhabited by both
Carib and Arawak tribes, who named it Guiana, which means land of
many waters. The Dutch settled in Guyana in the late 16th century,
but their control ended when the British became the de facto rulers
in 1796. In 1815, the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice
were officially ceded to Great Britain at the Congress of Vienna
and, in 1831, were consolidated as British Guiana. Following the
abolition of slavery in 1834, thousands of indentured laborers were
brought to Guyana to replace the slaves on the sugarcane
plantations, primarily from India but also from Portugal and China.
The British stopped the practice in 1917. Many of the Afro-Guyanese
former slaves moved to the towns and became the majority urban
population, whereas the Indo-Guyanese remained predominantly rural.
A scheme in 1862 to bring black workers from the United States was
unsuccessful. The small Amerindian population lives in the country's
interior.
The people drawn from these diverse origins have coexisted
peacefully for the most part. Slave revolts, such as the one in 1763
led by Guyana's national hero, Cuffy, demonstrated the desire for
basic rights but also a willingness to compromise. Politically
inspired racial disturbances between Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese
erupted in 1962-64, and again following elections in 1997 and 2001.
The conservative and cooperative nature of Guyanese society has
contributed to a cooling of racial tensions; however, such tensions
do constitute Guyana's most sensitive social stress point.
Guyanese political history has been turbulent. The first modern
political party in Guyana was the People's Progressive Party (PPP),
established on January 1, 1950, with Forbes Burnham, a
British-educated Afro-Guyanese, as chairman; Dr. Cheddi Jagan, a
U.S.-educated Indo-Guyanese, as second vice chairman; and Dr.
Jagan's American-born wife, Janet Jagan, as secretary general. The
PPP won 18 out of 24 seats in the first popular elections permitted
by the colonial government in 1953, and Dr. Jagan became leader of
the house and minister of agriculture in the colonial government.
Five months later, on October 9, 1953, the British suspended the
constitution and landed troops because, they said, the Jagans and
the PPP were planning to make Guyana a communist state. These events
led to a split in the PPP, in which Burnham broke away and founded
what eventually became the People's National Congress (PNC).
Elections were permitted again in 1957 and 1961, and Cheddi Jagan's
PPP ticket won on both occasions, with 48% of the vote in 1957 and
43% in 1961. Cheddi Jagan became the first premier of British
Guiana, a position he held for 7 years. At a constitutional
conference in London in 1963, the U.K. Government agreed to grant
independence to the colony but only after another election in which
proportional representation would be introduced for the first time.
It was widely believed that this system would reduce the number of
seats won by the PPP and prevent it from obtaining a clear majority
in Parliament. The December 1964 elections gave the PPP 46%, the PNC
41%, and the United Force (TUF), a conservative party, 12%. TUF
threw its votes in the legislature to Forbes Burnham, who became
prime minister.
Guyana achieved independence in May 1966, and became a republic on
February 23, 1970--the anniversary of the Cuffy slave rebellion.
From December 1964 until his death in August 1985, Forbes Burnham
ruled Guyana in an increasingly autocratic manner, first as prime
minister and later, after the adoption of a new constitution in
1980, as executive president. During that timeframe, elections were
viewed in Guyana and abroad as fraudulent. Human rights and civil
liberties were suppressed, and two major political assassinations
occurred: the Jesuit Priest and journalist Bernard Darke in July
1979, and the distinguished historian and WPA Party leader Walter
Rodney in June 1980. Agents of President Burnham are widely believed
to have been responsible for both deaths.
Following Burnham's own death in 1985, Prime Minister Hugh Desmond
Hoyte acceded to the presidency and was formally elected in the
December 1985 national elections. Hoyte gradually reversed Burnham's
policies, moving from state socialism and one-party control to a
market economy and unrestricted freedom of the press and assembly.
On October 5, 1992, a new National Assembly and regional councils
were elected in the first Guyanese election since 1964 to be
internationally recognized as free and fair. Cheddi Jagan was
elected and sworn in as president on October 9, 1992.
When President Jagan died in March 1997, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds
replaced him in accordance with constitutional provisions. President
Jagan's widow, Janet Jagan, was elected president in December 1997.
She resigned in August 1999 due to ill health and was succeeded by
Finance Minister Bharrat Jagdeo, who had been named prime minister a
day earlier. National elections were held on March 19, 2001.
Incumbent President Jagdeo won re-election with a voter turnout of
over 90%. President Jagdeo won re-election again in national
elections held on August 28, 2006, the first non-violent elections
held in more than 20 years. |
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