Cheddi Jagan commemorative stamps approved – President

Despite what President David Granger calls a “delay to set the context to ensure that other deserving Guyanese would not be subject to arbitrary recommendations”, the Cheddi Jagan commemorative stamps to honour the late President have been approved.
According to President Granger, the persons who applied for the stamps misinterpreted the purpose of the honour.
The Head of State noted that his Government supports the honouring of its former Presidents but was however concerned with the context that this particular request was being made.
“The persons who applied for that I think misinterpreted the purpose of the honour. The Government of Guyana supports honouring its former Presidents, all of them, but we were concerned that the request that was put in the context of honouring President Jagan rather than a postal function. It’s a function of honouring a distinguished Guyanese and we wanted to put that in the correct context and we wanted to ensure that other distinguished Guyanese are also honoured,” the President explained.
However, following the eight-day delay, Granger announced that the stamps have been approved.
“There was a delay but we have approved the issue of the stamps but the delay was as a result of setting the context and ensuring that other deserving Guyanese would not be subject to arbitrary or ad hoc recommendations but nobody thoughts Dr Jagan’s contributions to the development of Guyana and it has been approved”.
The stamps, Granger revealed, have been already printed, however a fixed date was not given as to when the public would be able to access same.
“The stamps have been printed but the point is that the persons who wrote the application wrote to the wrong person. One letter was sent to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, one to the Ministry of Telecommunications and others to the Prime Minister. As far as I’m concerned, these are national honours and there is a constitution which deals with the national honour system”.
Public Telecommunications Minister, Cathy Hughes had announced last month that the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) would be issuing commemorative stamps to celebrate the former President’s 100th birth anniversary, following an arrangement with the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre.
However, on the day of Jagan’s birth anniversary, March 21, the Research Centre never received the stamps from the Post Office.
Following questions, GPOC referred the media to the Ministry of the Presidency to direct their questions.
After being accused of political interference, the Ministry issued a statement claiming that President David Granger will not allow national symbols to be used for private, partisan or political messages.
“The Government of Guyana will announce shortly, national symbols to celebrate the life and work of former Presidents of Guyana, H E Raymond Arthur Chung, OE and HE Dr Cheddi Jagan, OE, within the context of set criteria for honouring eminent Guyanese. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of both former Presidents”.
President David Granger said Cabinet has taken a decision that commemorative stamps, which are national symbols, must adhere to national criteria.
However this was met with backlash from former Chairman of the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC), Juan Edghill who called for the Post Master General and the Directors of the Agency to resign for allowing the Government to interfere and hijack a business transaction it had with a private entity.
“When the President of Guyana is trying to use fancy language to hoodwink the population, I stand by my original statement that I made, this intervention by the Ministry of the Presidency is petty, partisan politics,” Edghill said.
Former Attorney General Anil Nandlall also calls the President’s intervention unlawful.
Nanadall argued that the GPOC is a statutory body corporate managed by a Board of Directors and possesses its own persona. He said that it is not a department of the Government but an agency of the State.