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PORTRAIT OF A PEOPLE’S PRESIDENT

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THAT is the title of my booklet containing a biographic sketch of Cheddi Berret Jagan, which was distributed during the funeral for the late President of Guyana. Since then, much has been said and written about this legendary Guyanese leader, the centenary of whose birth is being celebrated this year.

I expect that as part of the national effort to remember the late President, that the Guyana Post Office Corporation will issue a commemorative stamp. A request to this effect was made to me by a few trusted aides of the late President, and I had passed on same to the Minister of Public Telecommunications for her attention. In time, I also expect to see erected by the Seven Ponds or somewhere else in Georgetown, a monument befitting the stature of this cherished national hero.

INDEPENDENCE PIONEERS
Cheddi Jagan was born on March 22, 1918 in Port Mourant, then a colonial sugar plantation in Berbice. After his education in the USA, he returned to then British Guiana and pioneered with others, initially in the Political Affairs Committee and, later, in the united People’s Progressive Party, struggles for independence of the colony from Great Britain.

Cheddi Jagan entered parliament in 1947, as an independent candidate. He went on to become Chief Minister in 1953, Premier in 1961 and Executive President in 1992. The New York Times described him as a “firebrand” and as one of the “Caribbean’s most contentious political leaders” for half a century.

The “contention” was over his avowed Marxist stance, and his political alignment with the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, which were used by the British as a subterfuge to remove his government in 1953; and by the United States to engineer his ouster from office in 1964.

REFORMED MARXIST
However, Cheddi Jagan mellowed as the Cold War thawed, describing himself as a “Gorbachev before Gorbachev” after the Soviet leader introduced “Glasnost and Perestroika” that eventually resulted in the dismantling of the authoritarian Soviet state. In a booklet, “Retracing our Footsteps” on which we worked together, Cheddi Jagan tried to re-package and re-image his ideological positions.

It was at that time that the celebrated author V.S. Naipaul referred to the aging firebrand left-wing warrior, in his article, “In the Red Corner” as a pure, ethical Marxist – a euphemism for the better guy, who was trying to make a come-back to office with overwhelming popular support.

On a de-briefing trip in 1989 to the USA, I presented Cheddi Jagan as a revolutionary democrat, who was committed to the rule of law, a free press and civil liberties. Others like Senator John Kerry and the influential Congressional Black Caucus, gave their support for the red corner.

Cheddi Jagan modified many of his apparent dogmatic ideological views. For example, as regards one-party rule in Cuba, he stated that “multi-party rule is the wave of the future” During his final days, he busied himself with re-formulating his ideas for a New Global Human Order, which has since been adopted as a resolution by the United Nations, and recommitting Guyana to making the Caribbean a Zone of Peace.

I worked with him on revision of the Epilogue to his epic book,The West on Trial, in which he articulated his fresh vision. He wanted to do the same with “The Caribbean Revolution: Whose Backyard?” but time ran out on him, as he fell ill on February 14, 1996, and died weeks later in Washington, where he had been rushed for heart surgery.

But the Cheddi Jagan that I have known and worked besides for over 25 years, was not trapped in any ideological cocoon. He was open-minded and looked at the world around him with gentle, humane eyes. His pro-poor attitude could not be defined by ideology. So too was his position on issues such as reduction of spending on weapons and wars; and re-distribution of resources to eradicate poverty.

Even before Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus came up with his concept of the Three Zeroes of the World — to eradicate poverty, unemployment and carbon emissions — Cheddi Jagan was an ardent advocate for international action, especially from the more powerful countries.

MODEST AND UNASSUMING
Cheddi Jagan was modest and unassuming. Besides, he was not vengeful. I will give a few simple examples. After he became President, he was uneasy over exaggerated references to official status. I recall that during an internal party meeting, a minister tried to be politically correct when he addressed him as “His Excellency”. Without lifting his head, the Guyanese leader calmly said: “Call me Comrade Cheddi”. Most of us have never referred to him since by any other appellation.

I also remember that after taking office, his first instruction to me was to issue a statement that he was no longer the President of GAWU. He was now President of all the Guyanese working people. He also asked me to issue a statement that under his presidency, there would be no discrimination, no victimisation and no recrimination. Comrade Cheddi wanted to bury the ghost of the political past in order to make space for reconciliation.

He believed in and practised consultation, even when the process is painful or dragged out. He always wanted to involve the grassroots of the party. Some times when he had a strong position on an issue, he would defer discussions to allow others to have a better or global view of the subject. He would also help the discussion by preparing “pros” and “cons”. That was part of his belief in “democratic centralism”, but when he died, almost immediately the democracy from centralism was removed. It was replaced by bureaucratic centralism, and later by crude, authoritarian bullyism. That led me and other quality leaders to walk, in my case after 50 years of association with Cheddi’s party.

CRITICAL REVIEW
There is time yet for a critical review of the Cheddi Jagan era, which has to be periodised to see the challenges and mistakes in the anti-colonial struggle for independence, the post-independence period leading to state control of the economy, experimentation with a socialist model of economic development, etc. This assessment would of necessity involve a broader examination of the role of both Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham, the authenticity of their ideological disputations, and what would appear to be at times, a naked drive for political office in which ethnic mobilisation became the principal vehicle.

That examination should provide more definitive answers as to why two working- class parties that were ostensibly committed to the same or similar goals, remained separate and apart, and unapologetically drove a wedge in the quest of the Guyanese people for national unity.

NATIONAL UNITY
I can say however that the greatest obsession of Cheddi Jagan was to bring about closer working relations between himself and Forbes Burnham, and between their parties. I have no reason to believe that Burnham did not want that, and had probably bent backwards to accommodate that unity when he accepted into his ranks almost the entire corps of Marxist-Leninist PPP ideologists.

It must be remarkably strange that some countries that had been devastated by wars, hurricanes and earthquakes have invariably rebuilt their ravaged states. But in Guyana, the schism that resulted from the “party split” in 1955 remains like an ugly scar on our political landscape.

The centenary of the birth of Cheddi Jagan must give us cause to re-look at our past and to deepen the efforts at uniting our Guyanese people. With a multi-party government in place since the May 11, 2015 elections, a new platform has been created to accommodate this

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All of the Party Comrades see the greatness and humility in CBJ. History has shown these ass kissers as momental failures, they live for themselves. Jagan was a failure just like his admirers who also was just satisfied to be Premier, Opposition Leader and President. He did absolutely nothing for the poor of Guyana. If anything he sided with Forbes to punish poor people more. Nagamoottoo is a full jackass, now saddled and rideden by Granger. Some ppl gat no shame to know that ppl knows dem performance.

S
seignet posted:

All of the Party Comrades see the greatness and humility in CBJ. History has shown these ass kissers as momental failures, they live for themselves. Jagan was a failure just like his admirers who also was just satisfied to be Premier, Opposition Leader and President. 

Image result for cheddi jagan

was the

Image result for jesus images

of

Image result for SMALL guyana map

 

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Gilbakka posted:
seignet posted:

All of the Party Comrades see the greatness and humility in CBJ. History has shown these ass kissers as momental failures, they live for themselves. Jagan was a failure just like his admirers who also was just satisfied to be Premier, Opposition Leader and President. 

Image result for cheddi jagan

was the

Image result for jesus images

of

Image result for SMALL guyana map

 

If he was born in 1918, how can he be the father of the nation?  Guyana was around for hundreds of years before that.

Bibi Haniffa
Bibi Haniffa posted:
Gilbakka posted:
seignet posted:

All of the Party Comrades see the greatness and humility in CBJ. History has shown these ass kissers as momental failures, they live for themselves. Jagan was a failure just like his admirers who also was just satisfied to be Premier, Opposition Leader and President. 

Image result for cheddi jagan

was the

Image result for jesus images

of

Image result for SMALL guyana map

 

If he was born in 1918, how can he be the father of the nation?  Guyana was around for hundreds of years before that.

The NATION of Guyana was born in 1966 when Jagan was 48 years old. Before that Guyana was a colony. Jagan was not father of the colony.

FM
Gilbakka posted:
Bibi Haniffa posted:
Gilbakka posted:
seignet posted:

All of the Party Comrades see the greatness and humility in CBJ. History has shown these ass kissers as momental failures, they live for themselves. Jagan was a failure just like his admirers who also was just satisfied to be Premier, Opposition Leader and President. 

Image result for cheddi jagan

was the

Image result for jesus images

of

Image result for SMALL guyana map

 

If he was born in 1918, how can he be the father of the nation?  Guyana was around for hundreds of years before that.

The NATION of Guyana was born in 1966 when Jagan was 48 years old. Before that Guyana was a colony. Jagan was not father of the colony.

Guyana was a nation under the Caribs and Arawaks before the colonists showed up.

Bibi Haniffa
Bibi Haniffa posted: Guyana was a nation under the Caribs and Arawaks before the colonists showed up.
 

More likely Guyana was 7 nations before the colonizers showed up. Caribs, Arawaks, Patamonias, Makusis, Waiwais, Akawaios and Wapishanas --- each had its own known territory and heaven helped any "nation" that crossed the border of another "nation".

FM
Gilbakka posted:
Bibi Haniffa posted: Guyana was a nation under the Caribs and Arawaks before the colonists showed up.
 

More likely Guyana was 7 nations before the colonizers showed up. Caribs, Arawaks, Patamonias, Makusis, Waiwais, Akawaios and Wapishanas --- each had its own known territory and heaven helped any "nation" that crossed the border of another "nation".

For this reason we should have an Amerindian president.  It's their country.

Bibi Haniffa
Bibi Haniffa posted:
Gilbakka posted:
Bibi Haniffa posted: Guyana was a nation under the Caribs and Arawaks before the colonists showed up.
 

More likely Guyana was 7 nations before the colonizers showed up. Caribs, Arawaks, Patamonias, Makusis, Waiwais, Akawaios and Wapishanas --- each had its own known territory and heaven helped any "nation" that crossed the border of another "nation".

For this reason we should have an Amerindian president.  It's their country.

Someone posted in another thread that the next PPP presidential candidate should be Pauline Campbell-Sukhai.

Image result for pauline sukhai guyana

 

FM

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