Guyana’s gift to the world – Dr Cheddi B Jagan

Dear Editor,
March 6th, 2024 commemorates the 27th anniversary of Guyana’s “Father of the Nation” bidding farewell to the world, after serving as President for five years, being duly elected in Guyana’s first free election since 1964.
What waged for 28 harrowing years was a reign of dictatorship from Burnham and Hoyte, who rigged the elections in order to seize power, and governed as illegitimate presidents.
Despite winning the 1964 election, the famous dentist was ousted after being in office but not power, due to the coalition of Burnham’s anti-communism PNC Party and D’Aguiar’s pro-capitalist UF party, in collaboration with the agreement and support of the British and the Americans, who feared the birth of another Cuba in the Caribbean. Ironically, it was the intervention of the very Americans, through the instrumentality of the Carter Center, who helped to restore democracy in 1992, and made it possible to avoid another rigged election.
The author of 4 books, including the popular “The West on Trial”, the name Dr. Cheddi B Jagan would remain a name to be reckoned with; a name which is remarkably renowned for his reformed politics in Guyana, the Caribbean and the world; his humane ethics for simplicity and humility as a way of life; and his revolutionary matrix assumed ideologies for Marxism, Leninism, Communism and Socialism.
His lineage bore a rich heritage from India, and he was born on the 22nd March, 1918 in the Dutch county of Berbice, to a sugar worker’s family in the admired village of Port Mourant, which gave the world the Luckhoo legal luminaries and cricket gifts in the form of Rohan Kanhai, Basil Butcher, Joe Solomon, Randolph Ramnarace and Alvin Kallicharan.
Dr. Cheddi Jagan rose from poverty to become President in a land of many waters and races, enriched by its natural resources, abused by colonialism, afflicted by slavery, affected by indentureship, inflicted by poverty, accrued with economic disadvantages, divided by racism, infused by class discrimination, permeated by cultural suppression, oppressed by multiple complexes, destroyed by dictatorship, dominated by political interferences, imprisoned by power control, raped by corruption, mismanaged by election riggers, harvested by social discomforts, envied by greedy and ambitious enthusiasts, and not devoid of British and American bureaucracies.
Under Jagan’s leadership from 1992, what ensued was a period of damage control and laying the foundation for the path of economic and social recovery. Orchestrated by the PNC rulers, Guyana had metamorphosed into a country of doom and gloom, polluted with misdemeanors, devastated by emigration, robbed by a brain-drain, and chagrined with economic bankruptcy and high national debts. He slowly but surely restored faith in the people to have faith in Guyana’s motto, i.e., One People, One Nation, One Destiny.
The cruel hands of imperialism were stumbling blocks which hurdled a great challenge for Dr. Jagan to promote his “universal suffrage” idealism, although he did deliver his “New Global Human Order” speech at the United Nations in 1995.
His close relationship with the Soviet Union and Cuba in his early political career was a distinct disadvantage, and was seen as a threat. This impeded his growth, prevented him from functioning with authority, and curtailed his autonomy in a suffocating colony denied of freedom and held in bondage by the scars of slavery and indentureship.
Jagan’s political demise was further punctuated when his trust was betrayed by the deceiving and cunning disloyalty of LFSB, who joined the brutal hands of others to become Guyana’s Brutus. Jagan’s successor then ensured that he remained an outcast as an Opposition Leader, subject to witnessing the making of a dictator and skullduggery in prevalence, while there was little, if anything, Jagan could do to change the dastardly situation. A disillusioned “Emperor” surfaced, and Burnham and his cohorts began the production of a fractured people and nation with military control, while Jagan survived to plan and pray for a miracle.
Jagan witnessed an impoverished nation emptying itself as people from all races ran from a poisoned and prejudiced society to improve their lives and improve their self-esteem.
Dr. Jagan must be credited for many accolades, and applauded for many plausible positives. He was responsible for: introducing tertiary education in Guyana; commencing independence negotiation; unprecedently challenging the British Monarchy; legally usurping legitimate positions; championing the cause for sugar, rice and bauxite; crowning the fight for agriculture, health and education; and revolutionizing the identity of Guyana and Guyanese, among other successful distinctions.
As an exceptional personality, Dr. Cheddi Jagan personified the dignity of an unblemished character, full of compassion and understanding, free from any baggage, unburdened with corruption, purified with honesty, bridled with truth, unharnessed from bribery, uncontaminated with negative influences, and fertilized the seed for peace, progress and prosperity.
To fill his shoes would be a difficult and uphill task, one that may circumvent the choice of materialism and selfishness. His existential effect can mould the guidance essential for the demands of Guyana’s profound development and the fair distribution of equality, justice and liberty in a complex community, construed with lies and deceits by dissonant, complicated with evil distortions by naysayers, compounded by racial insinuations by deceivers, and contaminated with incited violence by strife-makers.
Over 200,000 people thronged at Babu Jaan to view the man who was the founder of the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic when he was cremated under Hindu rites on March 6, 1997. Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s legacy is unfolded in this insight, “I am not only fighting for the people of Guyana. I am fighting for the people of the world. I am contributing to that struggle. That struggle is winning. That is why the United States is so hysterical at the moment, because of that very fact that what I stand for is winning”.
Yours respectfully,
Jai Lall