Articles by Janet Jagan

Articles by Janet Jagan

REMEMBERING THE PAST & LIVING THE PRESENT

by Janet Jagan

Mr. Hoyte has a propensity for making all sorts of allegations - - that the PPP/Civic is illegal, that there is no elected President of Guyana, that the PPP/Civic should demit office, that the electoral lists are padded and in fact, he led his Party to riots in 1997 and 1998, claiming the elections were rigged. His mouth hasn't stopped uttering the most ridiculous and far-fetched accusations. Sad to say, but the most sordid elections in the history of our beloved nation took place after he was installed as President following the death of Mr. Burnham, when he spent 7 years in office in a 5-year term.

"Sordid" is not really my word, I was using one of the words in a statement issued after the 1985 elections in which Catholic Bishop Benedict Singh, Anglican Bishop Randolph George, together with representatives of the Bar Association and the Human Rights Association condemned the elections in these words: -

"... the familiar and sordid catalogue of widespread disenfranchisement, threats, intimidations, violence and collusion by police and army personnel." These factors, they said "characterised the poll."

For those who may have any doubts about the PNC and what it has done and what it stands for, these words have a clarity and truth that should never be ignored - or as it could be said -- to ignore this warning is to put oneself at great peril!

Following these elections, the first one under the presidency of Mr. Hoyte, in which he bears the full brunt of responsibility, there were many follow-up statements of persons involved in the electoral process who felt the full brunt of the electoral fraud.

For example, Navin Chandarpaul, Presidential advisor on environment was a candidate in the 1985 elections and had rights approved by the Chief Elections Officer to enter polling stations during the poll and counting centres for Region 5.

He and another candidate were prevented from entering the Counting Centre. He was blocked at gunpoint by armed soldiers and not a single opposition agent was permitted to be present at the counting of ballots.

Many ballot boxes were held for several hours completely out of the scrutiny or sight of any opposition polling agents.

Any wonder that one of the main demands for the 1992 elections was counting of ballots at place of poll immediately after the close of poll? Sometimes we forget these terrible things that have hurt people and harmed democracy -- set us backwards for years.

Thirty-six prominent Guyanese, members of civil society, put their names to an open letter calling for free and fair elections, one vote only for each voter (some used to vote many times) and an end to an atmosphere of intimidation at elections. This was a bold move, particularly in view of the range of intimidation that was taking place at all levels.

Some 40,000 Guyanese signed a petition calling for electoral reforms. They were part and parcel of the build-up which the PPP and PCD incorporated into their campaign to end fraudulent elections. Finally, former US President Jimmy Carter, on Cheddi Jagan's request, came to Guyana and helped negotiate an end to these vile electoral practices of the PNC. Do we wonder why it is that the PNC is not happy about Carter's return?

Of course, there were many factors not mentioned in this show-down that lasted from 1990-92. One aspect we cannot ignore is the factor of the Western Hemisphere returning to democratic practices after decades of corrupt dictatorships like those existing in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, El Salvador, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, etc.

Guyana was one of the last states of this hemisphere to return to democratic practices and it was this factor which also led to Carter's interest in our plight. It is more than ironic that the accused has become the accuser, like the thief, being pursued by police, points in another direction and says "he's gone that away."

© 2001 Janet Jagan

REMEMBERING THE PAST & LIVING THE PRESENT
by Janet Jagan

At the PPP/Civic launching of the 2001 election Campaign in Kitty, I pointed out that Dr. Jagan in 1947 - 54 years ago - launched his campaign for the Kitty to Buxton Constituency. He won in his first-ever campaign which he ran alone. There was no People's Progressive Party at that time to back him.

Thus began his uninterrupted presence in the nation's highest forum, Parliament, for the next 50 years. When I write "uninterrupted," I should qualify that by noting that after the Constitution was suspended in October 1953, the British appointed an Interim Government which lasted until the next general elections in 1957. And after the horrific 1973 elections under the PNC, when all hell was let loose in the massively rigged elections, the PPP boycotted the National Assembly for three years.

The late President Cheddi Jagan just missed completing his 50th year as a parliamentarian by a few months, when he died in March 1997.

In referring to the fact that Dr. Jagan fought the Kitty to Buxton constituency in 1947, I was pointing to the significance of Kitty in the historical context - since three major campaigns in recent years were launched from that village - the historic 1992 campaign which resulted in a PPP victory after 28 years of PNC rigged elections as well as that of 1997 and last week's launch, so impressive, so strongly supported in an unprecedented show of support of the PPP, as well as its concept of love, peace and unity. These are admirable human concepts in an atmosphere of hate, vilification and dirty tricks.

Someone asked me why I am so confident that the PPP/Civic will win the March 19th elections and my answer is this: -

1. We have a record of service to the people that is unmatched in the history of our country. These achievements in education, health, water supplies, housing, infrastructure, roads, investments, etc. touch every person at the grass-root level.

2. We have faithfully fulfilled promises and have spent time with people and communities. We have reopened doors to the people who have problems. Thousands of interviews take place with people every week, in the ministries, at Freedom House and in the areas.

3. We have had four presidents since 1992 - each fully dedicated, honest and committed to the service of the people.

4. Just take a look at our hundreds of meetings throughout the length and breadth of Guyana and see the responses.

5. There is just one choice - either Bharrat Jagdeo or Desmond Hoyte. Not many want a return of Hoyte and the dark days Guyana suffered! The opposition cannot be so stupid as to believe that people have forgotten what they went through in the 28 years of PNC rule!

© 2001 Janet Jagan

REMEMBERING THE PAST & LIVING THE PRESENT

by Janet Jagan

The PNC and its supporters are trying to make a big deal about the use or, as they allege, misuse of the State Media during elections.
The state media has been notoriously in the hands of the PNC, one way or another. Even in Colonial times, its friends, as in the bureaucracy, have always held key positions which relentlessly worked against any party or group opposing that party.

In the PPP governments of 1957-61 and 1961-64 the GIS and the radio station, as well as the newspapers, were all hostile to the elected government. So uncooperative was the GIS (Government Information Services) and so openly hostile was the rest of the media that it was necessary for the PPP to have a voice during these crucial years. The PPP government's positions, its utterances, its achievements, its views were drowned out by media blackouts.

Thus Mirror was founded in 1962, to give fair media coverage of the PPP's positions and policies. This was the time when the Chronicle, under D'Aguiar and Nascimento, was distorting the truth and creating mass hysteria. I can remember headlines shouting that Cuban gunboats were offshore, ready to land; that thousands of Cubans were in Guiana (there were two Cuban diplomats in the country!), etc.

Later, after the British/American manipulations to change the electoral system and then pitchforked D'Aguiar and Burnham into a coalition, the hostile media situation continued and even worsened.

In the ensuing rigged elections, every effort was made to black out stories of rigging. Those exposing the electoral rigging, like Rickey Singh and Ric Mentis at the Graphic and Father Wong at Catholic Standard were dismissed for exposing electoral rigging.

Even more vicious steps were taken by the Burnham regime. Mirror newspaper was denied licences to import newsprint and printing equipment. The newspaper was forced out of publication on more than one occasion because it had no newsprint.

This was challenged in the courts and in the first instance, a judge pronounced that no newsprint was equal to denying the right to freedom of expression. But this was appealed by the PNC regime and with precision, the higher court threw this out. This was the kind of judicial justice that had existed.

The PNC hired thugs to beat up Mirror vendors to push the newspaper off the street. The truth, according to Burnham and his PNC, was not to be told.

Libel was used, also, as a weapon against Mirror and Catholic Standard, the only newspapers not under the thumb of the PNC.
The state media, tightly controlled by the PNC, gave the most minimal voice to parties contesting the general elections, both before and after independence.

Since the restoration of democracy in 1992, there is no evidence of abuse of the media by the PPP/Civic. In fact, there are criticisms that it has been too tolerant and has bent backwards not to ruffle too many feathers. The media is surely one area where political appointments were made by the PNC. If one followed the practice in the USA, all political appointees would have lost their jobs when the new government came into office.

Now reviews of the media are asserting that the PPP/Civic is getting too much coverage although there is an admission that this concerns government news, not necessarily that of the PPP per se. It is obvious that the major news stories will deal with government policies and results, such as new housing schemes, extension of pure water supplies, tackling health issues like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, road programmes, education policies and new schools, life in the interior, talks on the border issues, fiscal matters, constitutional issues, police matters, lands and mines, poverty alleviation and so on. Such matters, which necessarily involve the government of the day, are bound to dominate the news and cannot be deemed 'political.' They are part of the life of the Guyanese community and it would be wrong to designate such as a political advantage over the parties contesting the elections.

© 2001 Janet Jagan

Remembering The Past & Living The Present
by Janet Jagan

South Africa has been fortunate to have had support from within the section of its population which in the past had enforced and practised the policies of Apartheid, perhaps the world's worst example of racial segregation. From its White community, there have been many outspoken protagonists of an end to the Apartheid system and quite a few who put their lives at risk in the long protracted struggle by the people of South Africa for its freedom. Joe Slovo and his wife Ruth First (who died as a result of a package bomb sent to her), religious leaders of all races and writers like Nadene Gordimer as well as lawyers and judges played their part and made positive contributions. Names like Rev Huddleston, Bram Fischer and others come to mind. Fisher, I believe, died in prison.

One judge, Richard Goldstone, used his position during the Apartheid years to challenge the system. For example, he ruled that "people of colour" could not be ejected from a designated "White" residential area if they had no alternative accommodation, thus challenging one of the pillars of racial segregation. In another decision, he ordered the security police to return seized material to the "Release Mandela Campaign." He is also reputed to have had the courage to visit thousands of political activists being held in detention without trial, no doubt saving many from abuse or torture. (Source: Time Magazine, 12/11/00).

If we do a comparison with the struggles in South Africa to ours, we can see many similarities; for example, in recent years the clergy, as in South Africa, has been supportive of the people's struggles for democracy, mainly during the years of PNC rule. Many church leaders have come forward, in the face of strong attacks, to support the restoration of democracy and an end to fraudulent elections.

However, in Guyana, we never had those associated with the ruling class during the colonial period coming out to support the independence movement. And obviously, no one associated with the PNC ruling clique ever risked denouncing that regime's denial of human rights and the rights of the voters to elect a government of their choice.

We can ask a pertinent question: Have we ever had the good fortune to have someone like Judge Goldstone in our judicial system? The answer we all know. For that matter, we have had much too much of the antithesis of Goldstone.

Judge Goldstone headed a Commission that produced enough evidence of human rights abuses during the final Apartheid years to justify the establishment of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Commission unearthed many of the horrors of Apartheid. The De Klerk Government had opposed the establishment of a Truth Commission but Judge Goldstone produced enough evidence of criminal acts to justify this Commission.

Maybe such a Commission should have been established after the 1992 elections in Guyana. There has been continuing evidence of numerous criminal acts by the PNC during its 28 years of illegal rule to justify such a Commission. The late president Cheddi Jagan felt that reconciliation and national unity could be jeopardized by such a Commission which would systematically investigate all the wrong doings of the PNC regime which led to the mass exodus of the people (now there are more Guyanese living overseas than in Guyana) and the wreckage of the economy. In his altruism, he did not anticipate that such magnanimity might be appreciated by the majority of people, but has little effect on a recalcitrant PNC.

© 2001 Janet Jagan

REMEMBERING THE PAST & LIVING THE PRESENT

by Janet Jagan

We hear, almost constantly in the media about racial problems in Guyana. The news columns and the letter pages of particularly one newspaper, are filled with accusations, many charging "plague on both parties," equalling the PNC and the PPP on this allegation, while hostile TV stations dig deep chasms of discord by their foul utterances.

The question can be asked: is the PPP a racial Party? Is it a racial party because it is accused of being one? Does that make it a Party of race?

History and the present circumstances tell a different story. I remember an Afro-American woman who came to Guyana to help in the struggle during the 60's saying to me: "Just because Indians support the PPP doesn't make it a racial party. They back the PPP because they believe what it stands for." I found those, pretty sound words.

The PPP grew out of the trade union movement. (The four founders of the Political Affairs Committee which laid the foundations for the formation of the People's Progressive Party, were all working in trade unions). It was and remains a party of the working people - workers and farmers. It just so happens that the largest segment of Guyanese workers come from the sugar industry where the majority, out of historical circumstances, are East Indians. It also happens that the majority of small farmers produce rice and also, by historical circumstances, are East Indians.

I remember that when we had the constituency system of elections I was twice returned as the legislative representative for the Essequibo Coast. There I met the remnants of a feudal land system, and spent much of my time representing terribly exploited tenant rice farmers. Did I fight for their rights because they were Indo-Guyanese, or because of exploitation? Obviously the latter was the reason.

We also, in those days on the Essequibo, which included the Pomeroon River (mostly non-East Indians) contributed to the well being of the small farmers by:

1) providing thousands of coconut plants free to increase production of copra
2) offered crop bonus for farmers who planted new crops
3) set up the marketing division which provided prompt and remunerative returns to farmers for their products
4) Sent in doctors on a regular basis into the Pomeroon. This was the pattern of all PPP legislative representatives.

And yet the accusation of race continued by those who hated the PPP and wanted it out of office.

In 1965, the year after the PPP was removed from office by a manipulated coalition and following the terrible years of deliberate divide and rule policies by the British, PPP leader Cheddi Jagan called on the Guyanese people "regardless of race or ethnic origin to unite and struggle for better conditions."

That year he again repeated his theme of unity and racial harmony, saying, "Racism is the greatest curse of our land ... anyone who spread racial propaganda must be severely dealt with. Such a person is an enemy to himself and his country."

In 1966 he continued his call for racial harmony at the 13th Congress of the PPP: -
"We must concentrate on day to day work on every front to achieve racial integration and unity of the working class."

This theme of racial unity was part and parcel of the PPP throughout the years, never faltering, always seeking national unity. Again in 1967, at the Party's Annual Congress Dr. Jagan in his report to delegates said:

"Unity of the working class regardless of race is vital. If we are to go forward, the party must have the backing of the working class, the peasantry and the intelligensia, not of one race but of all races ... we must combat racism mercilessly and build a disciplined party of quality rather than mere quantity. We must relentlessly expose and attack the coalition government for subverting the Constitution and making plans to rig the next elections."

Throughout the 60's, 70's and 80's, the PPP consistently and vigorously pursued a path of racial harmony and unity. So how could it be labelled a racial party?

The present, throughout the 90's, when the PPP, once free and fair elections were held, again gained victory at the polls, continued its task of achieving national unity.

Its policies during its eight years in office bear up to its integrity and determination. The PPP/Civic's achievements in rebuilding the nation after the catastrophic years of PNC rule have been without favour or prejudice. A look at its policies and application of restoring education, its pure water, housing and health achievements and the rebuilding of all that had deteriorated are living proof that the PPP is not and has not been a party of race. Yet those who do actually propound race and create racial crises charge the PPP with their own crimes. One has only to see and listen and thus know the truth. The truth is evident to those whose eyes are not clouded by the lies and distortions that abound.

© 2001 Janet Jagan