Dear Editor,
Although Gail Teixeira is a household name in Guyana, not much is known about this lady who has dedicated so much of her life to the land of her birth and its people. She is not one to blow her own trumpet.
From the early age of 14, Gail migrated to Canada with her parents. Years later, she met Dr. Cheddi Jagan while he was visiting Toronto in 1976. Obviously impressed with the work she was doing in support of the People’s Progressive Party, Dr Jagan, after consultation with the PPP Secretariat, invited her to return to Guyana to be his Personal Secretary. The rest is history. Cheddi Jagan must have seen something in this young woman that made him make such a bold move. Throughout the years that followed, the astuteness of Dr Jagan and the PPP has not been let down by the choice they made, as they gained a woman who has been trustworthy, disciplined and loyal to the party, and dedicated to the people of Guyana, the country of her birth.
The Gail Teixeira I know never flinched when the issues of principle were at stake, even when she was attacked both physically and publicly, as some people did not then understand the position of the People’s Progressive Party. Years later, the PPP has now been vindicated.
Freddie Kissoon maliciously and falsely attacks Gail Teixeira as an “ideological Stalinist”. In fact, Stalinism died since 1953. The newly formed PPP of 1950 never supported or defended Stalinism, and Gail Teixeira was a toddler when that era ended, thankfully. As an adult, she has always stood up for human rights and the respect and dignity of people. Her life has been dedicated to Parliamentary Democracy.
But by now we should all recognise that Freddie Kissoon is deliberately dropping these loaded terms for a reason; he is the ‘Pied Piper’ playing to someone else’s tune, and sending signals to anti-PPP forces, both internal and external, that Gail Teixeira would not be acceptable. These forces know too well that it was the PPPC — despite the “communist bogey” accusations of the 1960s — that moved this country forward as never before in the 23 years of its successive administrations, as it did when in Government in the early 60s. These same forces are now watching closely at the demise of Guyana again under an undemocratic, inept and corrupt APNU+AFC Coalition Government.
In his column, Freddie Kissoon — as usual — praises the late PNC Leader Forbes Burnham, and demonises Janet Jagan. Kissoon seems to have a fetish about Mrs Jagan, as he repeatedly attacks her — a great woman leader of Guyana, who is recognised internationally as one of the revolutionary women of the 20th century. In this case, Kissoon uses this to opportunistically attack Gail Teixeira.
Kissoon refuses to accept that, in 1997, Guyanese voted overwhelmingly for Janet Jagan when she was at the age of 77; giving her an even larger majority than her husband had received in 1992.
He conveniently ignores the fact that Burnham robbed the people of this country of their dignity and the right to have their voices expressed freely and fairly at elections held in 1968, 1973 and 1980.
This was repeated by Hoyte in 1985. When Burnham died, he left the country broken, fractured, and on its way to bankruptcy. The Historian David Granger and the former PNC Minister of Finance, Carl Greenidge, can both testify to this, but that would never happen.
Sincerely,
Harry Gill
PPP/C Member
of Parliament
