personally launched the Education Corps which was to be the main instrument for this politicisation process. By December, the first issue of our monthly newspaper - the Green Beret - came off the press and this was complemented the following year by the annual journal - the Scarlet Beret.
By 9 January 1971, the first in a series of political education courses had started and in coming months, Ministers of the Government, Party leaders, Heads of Public Institutions and other key persons would be lecturing to and discussing with GDF soldiers, the whole policy and ideology of the PNC Government. This was a refreshing and fruitful exercise which embraced every rank, from Private to Colonel, and the written and spoken word reached throughout the country to wherever soldiers were stationed. The soldiers quickly grasped the truth of the programme and enthusiastically supported not only the theoretical education which they were receiving, but willingly participated in community projects such as the memorable 'Advance Guyana' campaign. Some doubts lingered but the overwhelming support for political involvement laid a sound foundation for a new set of attitudes and relationships in the GDF.
First, the attitude to the people became more tolerant. There was a marked decrease in the number of 'incidents' of friction between soldiers and Policemen and soldiers and private citizens. Instead soldiers learned to look on their fellow Guyanese as a co-worker in nation building not as an inferior subject to be pacified or kept in line.
Secondly, the internal relationship between officers and men became more relaxed and friendly; as there was a break down of the rigid enclaves which separated officers from men. In traditional Western countries where class
societies still prevail, the army is a mirror of the social structure. In the early days, the GDF had imitated that system but now the premises would change as the understanding of 'functional' differences rather than 'class' differences became widespread.
Thirdly, there was a better understanding of the philosophy of the government. Its plans for the development and restructuring of the economy were made clear and particularly , the GDF learnt that its involvement in Self-Help schemes, road-building, farming and other civil tasks was to be regarded as important to the nation as preserving its territorial integrity on the Borders or standing by to carry out some 'conventional' military duty.
Several minor changes followed in the wake of the new policy, among them a new order that subordinate ranks had
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Soldiers at a political lecture.
