Arthur Chung (January 10, 1918 – June 23, 2008) was the first President of Guyana from 1970 to 1980. He was the first ethnic Chinese (Hakka) head of state in a non-Asian country.
Early Life
Chung was born on January 10, 1918 at Windsor Forest which is about 8 Km from Vreed-en-Hoop on the West Coast Demerara, into a family of eight – three boys and five girls. His father Joseph Chung, an immigrant from China, who worked as a foreman on Martha Fung-Kee-Fung’s extensive rice property at Windsor Forest; his mother Lucy was an immigrant from Trinidad.
They were the descendants of the first Chinese indentured immigrants who arrived aboard the SS Glentanner on 12 January 1853.
Arthur Chung was baptised and worshipped at St Jude’s Anglican Church at Blankenburg and attended the Windsor Forest and Blankenburg primary schools on the West Coast and the Modern High School in Georgetown, graduating with the Junior and Senior Cambridge certificates in 1938.
In 1954, Chung married Doreen Pamela Ng-See-Quan, with whom he had one daughter and one son.
Before civic service, Chung was an apprentice surveyor and sworn land surveyor.He qualified as a sworn land surveyor in 1940 after which he joined the staff of the Public Works Department where he stayed for six months before being recalled to the Lands and Mines Department to work as an Assistant Hydrographic surveyor with the Demerara River Navigation Development Project. It was while living and working aboard the waterborne vessel that he was able to accumulate enough savings to travel to Britain to study.
In the early 1940s, Chung entered the Middle Temple of London, England and qualified as a barrister in 1947. He returned to Guyana and was later appointed an acting magistrate. He became a magistrate in 1954 and a senior magistrate in 1960. Chung also served as Registrar of Deeds and of the Supreme Court. He then became a puisne judge and finally an Appeal Court Judge in 1963.
Appointment As President
Chung was elected as the country’s first president on March 17,1970 under the leadership of Forbes Burnham, the same year that Guyana became a republic.
“Our survival as a nation will depend on how well we work together.” Those were some of the words uttered by our first president at his inauguration.
The Chung presidency made a start in redefining the national identity and represented what ordinary people thought republicanism and socialism meant. Arthur Chung served through the decade of the grand experiment to transform society and the economy. Innovations ranged from changing conventions on dress to the nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy and the initiation of diplomatic relations with communist states.
He often visited hinterland communities nourishing a special fondness for Matthew’s Ridge where he spend New Year’s Eve with his family, and Annai in the Rupununi. He once caused something of a stir in the Venezuelan camp on occupied Ankoko Island when it was learnt that he was visiting Guyana Defence Force troops at Eteringbang across the Cuyuni River.
Exercising authority and influence rather than power, Arthur Chung understood his role as a civil servant and held his office with quiet dignity. He was to be the friendly face of Guyana’s future foreign policy of forging strategic relations in the Caribbean and economic relations with socialist countries.
A constitutional head of state, Arthur Chung was anything but ceremonial.He exuded a sense of dignity and impartiality to the highest office in the land and set a certain social tone as patron of the Guyana Legion, Guyana Red Cross Society, Guyana Lawn Tennis Association, and other civic organisations.
He made his first official visit as head of state to the United Kingdom in July 1971 where he was the Queen’s luncheon guest at Buckingham Palace, had tea with the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, attended a performance of Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House and a supper party at the Savoy hosted by the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
Official visits in the region to Antigua, Grenada and Jamaica followed. In the East, he visited the Republic of India; the People’s Republic of China, meeting President Hua Guofeng; the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, where he met President Kim Il Sung and to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, where he met President Joseph Tito.
In 1980, he was awarded the state’s highest honour, the Order of Excellence.
His Death
On June 23, 2008 Arthur Raymond Chung died peacefully at his Bel Air Springs home at 12:45 pm from multiple medical complications.
He was accorded a state funeral. He was laid to rest at the Seven Ponds, Place of Heroes.
His leadership, conviction and courage earned him the love,respect and admiration of the Guyanese people.
Article References:
- https://www.stabroeknews.com/2008/features/06/29/obituary-arthur-chung/
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Chung
