BB-2-fff
[Peoples Temple letterhead]
17 August, 1978
The Hon. Forbes Burham
Prime Minister
Public Buildings
Georgetown
Dear Prime Minister Burnham;
As you very well know, Peoples Temple has experienced press smears from racist rags in the United States, and we so well identify with your words that Guyana will undergo bad press as long as it is working to improve the lot of the people. We have also been the victim of a campaign to mail to officials and church leaders materials that imply that Peoples Temple is denyiny people their human rights, another experience which socialist Guyana knows well.
We know you are not affected by such propaganda and that gives us great confidence in you. However, we feel it would be a great mistake for the local press to succumb to nay attempts to print such lies about us which are designed to destroy a socialist movement.
The story of Jonestown itself is more than exciting and we think it should be covered objectively without even mentioning the lies which put in the reader’s mind doubts about such a group as ours. Some say it is good to print the lies and then refute them, but we have found in our experience that some people tend to dignify anything they see in print regardless of the refutations, and why put it in their mind to begin with when it is not true.
It is obnoxious to say the least to us who are peacefully growing cassava and providing medical care of over 300 people a week, and attempting to live socialistically with full participation in the PNC and national goals, that we have to even answer, on these shores, the same lies which made life in the U.S. most destructive to the cooperative life of our members.
If in some way the newspapers could be told this, we would be eternally appreciative and will be able to put our full energies into making you proud of us.
Cooperatively yours,
/Sharon Amos/
Cde. Sharon Amos
Assistant to Cde. Jim Jones
cc: The Hon. Dr. Ptolemy Reid
The Hon. Vibert Mingo