Remembering Cheddi Jagan
Liberator of Guyana
and Father of the Nation:
‘Respect due’
By Parvati Persaud-Edwards
Dr. Cheddi Jagan, writing of his father in The West on Trial said: “…because he was a man of fine and indomitable spirit, he died fighting to the very end…”
These words could have been used to describe the good doctor’s last days in the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington, USA, as he defied medical prognostications and created history once again with his fighting spirit and indomitable will, which kept him alive, even improving in health for a while, long after a normal man would have succumbed.
But then, Cheddi Jagan has always walked tall in the global consciousness as a colossus who could achieve the seemingly unachievable.
Passionate, sincere, true to his ideals, with the will to fight against gargantuan odds whatever the consequences, Cheddi Jagan was a simple plantation boy with a dream.
Quoting James Griffiths, former Colonial Secretary, in Forbidden Freedom, Dr Jagan wrote in Chapter Four: “I do not believe that anybody who has not seen it with his own eyes can begin to imagine the poverty in which so many of our fellow citizens of the Commonwealth are condemned to live.”
And, from Kumar Ghoshal’s People in the Colonies, Dr Jagan wrote: “The fundamental problem of the colonial people is their intense poverty, from which stem all the ills of colonial society. It is the problem of perpetual hunger, of death from preventable diseases and starvation, of illiteracy, fostered by the ruling powers to assure a constant supply of cheap and docile labour for land, mine, and plantation owners.”
In Chapter Three, quoting from the preface of Demerara Martyr, the story of the Reverend John Smith, Dr Jagan wrote: “When heavy droughts have come upon the land and the early and later rains have been withheld, and the crops have languished in the fields, and the cane has refused to yield its abundant juice, they have cried out – “The people are idle and they do not work.
“When they turned the cattle of the estates into the negroes’ provision grounds, tore the doors from the houses, applied the thumb-screw of rent to the last pinch, and drove the people to seek their own little freeholds where, unmolested, they might cultivate and enjoy the fruits of the earth, the cry has still been – ‘The people are idle and will not work’ …and they have forgotten that estates were never yet purchased as investment of capital, expected to yield a moderate but adequate interest, but on speculation in the hope of yielding enormous return for an almost nominal outlay.”
“… a moderate but adequate interest” hallmarked Dr Jagan’s lifelong belief that business should accrue exactly that, so as to enable equitable wealth distribution in order that workers who contributed to that wealth-creation could be adequately compensated and economically empowered to sustain decent lifestyles for themselves and their families. For this belief, Dr Jagan, who lived moderately all his life whatever his status, was branded “communist” by his detractors, mainly profit-driven capitalists and opportunistic politicians, to whom he was a constant thorn in the side as he fought relentlessly for workers’ and basic human rights.
But the foregoing passages encapsulate the motivational landscape in which lay the genesis of Dr Jagan’s lifelong commitment to the ideals of ending human misery, and his dream of eventual global peace and universal man’s wellbeing on the basis of man’s caring for his fellow man by creating a New Global Human Order, a cause for which he lobbied with vigour and passionate belief at every national and international forum he attended, because his heart was big enough to encompass the world; and his efforts have been awarded posthumous global recognition as more and more world leaders are espousing and embracing Dr Jagan’s suggestions for a new global dispensation.
While many of us are content to relegate dreams to a netherworld of unfulfillment, Cheddi Jagan embarked on a lifelong journey in the tangled jungle of the human condition in a soul-wrenching struggle to better the lot of the oppressed and the dehumanised.
In Chapter Five of Forbidden Freedom, he quotes black American Paul Robeson: “All over the world the ordinary people are challenging the entrenched positions of the privileged and are organising and fighting to win rights that have so long been withheld from them.”
But Cheddi Jagan was “no ordinary person.” He went on to write: “In the face of perpetual misery and degradation, of terror and bloodshed, there developed among the working people a growing trade union and political consciousness.
“The employers at first refused to recognise the MPCA, but the growing militancy of the workers forced them to concede. Their policy then was to divide the workers into racial and industrial compartments.”
This ‘divide and rule’ policy was first used to control the workforce by the plantocracy, then later by the late Forbes Burnham and the predatory forces – both internal and external, that partnered him to destabilise the first Jagan administration.
The bitter crop sowed was reaped in a harvest of destruction of lives and property in the 1960s, and the legacy of distrust still gnaws at the soul of the Guyanese nation, because it continues to be fostered and nurtured by the destructive architects whose craving for power blueprint Machiavellian machinations that generate a continuum of divisiveness in the Guyanese nationhood – an ideal that the first Jagan administration had achieved and which he aspired and strove to recapture all his life long.
In Chapter 18 of The West on Trial, Dr Jagan quotes Nelson Mandela at the Rivonia trial: “I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, against black domination…I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society.”
Like Nelson Mandela, Dr Jagan recognised that black Guyanese are being exploited and betrayed by their own black leaders who appeal to their emotions on the basis of a commonality of roots, race, and culture. But Cheddi Jagan was a member of another race, so most black people were convinced that they should not trust him, but to instead trust a leader of their own race. And therein lay the tragedy of our Guyanese people who have been encouraged by opportunists to shun the great, good father of this nation who fought every step of the way, against black, brown or white oppressors; being jailed, ridiculed – sanctioned in every conceivable way, in efforts to wrest freedoms and prosperous lifestyles for his people; which always comprised the entire Guyanese nation – without favour or prejudice.
Unlike world leaders like Gandhi and Mandela, Dr Jagan believed that strong families build strong communities and consequently strong nations, and he remained a loving, steadfast, and committed family man all his life, He was an exemplary son, husband, father, brother, friend, and an exceptional human being. His detractors accuse him of not being God-fearing; but he never had to fear God, because he walked God’s path by serving his fellow man all his life, at great personal sacrifice and danger to his own life, fearlessly and courageously braving all the odds and dangers of colonial and neo-Nazi tyrants and despots.
Dr Jagan institutionalised political struggle in the then British Guiana, and was a dynamo of valiant endeavour for justice and human rights all his life, yet he never learnt to play the political games others did. His honesty and sincerity of purpose shone like a beacon of hope to a nation beleaguered initially by overlords, and then by despots.
Elected as a member of the Legislative Council in 1974, Cheddi Jagan refused to be sidelined as a token legislator, and took Parliament to the streets. He initiated and led the fight for Independence from Britain, and although the instruments of Independence were ceded to a Forbes Burnham government, the real father of Guyana’s Independence movement was indisputably Dr Cheddi Jagan; and although Britain robbed him of his rights in a myriad ways, history has not robbed him of the recognition of his contributions.
From April 1953, Dr Jagan headed the first national government and has never yet lost an election until his demise in March 1997, although he was forced and/or manoeuvred out of office for decades.
During the long years of being in the wilderness, when the Guyanese people were reduced to the status of beggars and impacted as cheats on the regional and global consciousness, black Guyanese suffered right along with other races – and the heart of Cheddi Jagan bled as he fought his lonely battle against the tyrants – often ridiculed, jailed, penalised in some way or another: mocked at for his persistence in struggling against seemingly insurmountable odds. Indignities were heaped upon him in his lonely quest for freedom for this people.
Freedom from the tyranny of colonisation; freedom from wage freezes; from dictatorship; freedom of expression; freedom from fear of offending tyrants through unfavourable utterances; freedom for public servants from working for free at Hope Estate and canefields; freedom from starvation and Empty Rice Pots – every kind of freedom that is the bounden right of humankind. He was truly this nation’s liberator – in every conceivable way.
October 5, 1992 was the people’s triumph. The father of the Guyanese nation took his rightful place at the helm of this land and nation, both of which had been devastated and disempowered, and began the hard fight to turn the tides of adversity into a destiny of progress and prosperity.
Working indefatigably for the remaining four years of his life, with as little as two hours sleep many nights, Dr Jagan fulfilled the destiny to which he was born.
He had instituted democracy into governance and piloted Guyana’s economy and the future of the people of Guyana out of the lands that had pauperised this nation and demolished its social and physical infrastructures into safer waters; creating in the process the infrastructure for the process to continue smoothly and successfully.
His blinding charismatic smile would have flashed with supreme happiness to see the unity that his passing forged in the nation as Guyana bonded in shared grief at the loss of this nation’s beloved and respected father. As the people of Buxton demanded while calling a halt to his funeral procession so that they could share in the national mourning: ‘Respect due!’
Jagan was mostly an anti-imperialist
by Dr. Randy Persaud
RECENT writings about Dr. Cheddi Jagan branding him as an unrepentant communist are misguided. Worst yet, to lay blame on Jagan for Guyana’s problems on account of his supposed ideology is a form of regressive revisionism as recently pointed out by Minister Robert Persaud. The record should be set straight.
Jagan’s world view had three mutually reinforcing components.
Firstly, Dr. Jagan was firmly influenced by the actual conditions of the working classes in Guyana. He had a deep understanding of the general structure and modes of operation of the colonial and immediate post-colonial economies as in the case of Guyana. The extractive and agriculture-based character of these economies placed these social formations at the bottom end of the hierarchy of global capitalism. Since there was very little value added production in places such as Guyana, the wages of workers were almost permanently depressed.
Jagan understood the plight of workers in structural terms. In the pre-independence period he was certain that poor wages and working conditions were not simply the result of ‘market economics’ but also of the arbitrary exercise of political power in the form of colonial governance. National liberation, therefore, was about two things, namely, national sovereignty and, simultaneously, a platform for socio-economic transformation. There was nothing particularly ‘communist’ about these objectives.
Secondly, the politics of decolonization was deeply embedded in the global politics of the Cold War. The strident agitation of Jagan and the PPP was not well received in London and Washington for the same reasons that these centers of power privileged conservative forces in other locations. The sources of hegemonic power wanted what might be called gradual decompression of the global colonial order. They wanted to administer self-determination with guarantees. Two such guarantees were important. The first was basically to assure support for the Cold War effort, and had nothing to do with democracy. Events in Iran and Guatemala in the early 1950s prove this. The second guarantee was about ensuring that Guyana and other emerging sovereign states developed in the context of vertically integrated market economies.
Jagan and the PPP rightfully objected to this grand design of post-colonial hegemonisation.
Third, and finally, in the post-independence period, Jagan and the PPP were well aware of the severe limitations embedded in the Bretton Woods system. The international financial institutions, combined with other multilateral institutions of global governance were deeply penetrated by the values and preferences of western interests. These included the interests of both multinational capital and western great powers.
All together, the architecture of western governmentality amounted to forms of imperial continuity. Jagan rightfully objected to this. To his credit, he was not prepared to sell Guyana’s sovereignty for what Michael Manley once derisively called a few feeder roads.
The concept of governmentality allows the analyst to examine not only the tangible forms of structural marginalisation, but also the discourses of legitimation deployed by the power holders. Jagan developed an ideology which contested both the material and philosophical bases of great power dominance, something that did not sit well with those who controlled global power.
All told, Dr. Jagan was basically an anti-imperialist, something he shared with all the great anti-hegemonic leaders from Arica, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Interested readers may want to read Dr. Jagan’s letter to Peter D’Aguiar dated October 14, 1960.
Apparently, it does not sit well with some in Guyana, even a few who willingly served in Dr. Jagan’s government. One gentleman in particular seems to going through his own gradual decompression.
Preserving our literary heritage
Cheddi Jagan 1918 – 1997by Petamber Persaud
‘The Guyanese writer has a major role to play in the rebuilding of our society…people engaged in the arts must see themselves as part of the development process,’ declared the then President of Guyana, the late Cheddi Jagan, at the Guyana Prize for Literature Award Ceremony on November 6, 1992.
Some thirty-odd years earlier, The Cheddi Jagan Gold Medal for Literature was initiated to encourage the flowering of ideas, placing premium on imaginative literature of a people gravitating towards a Guyanese identity, a colony on the threshold of a Guyanese nationhood. During this same period, the History and Culture Week had taken roots, another invaluable national institution which could be seen as a precursor to the Guyana Festival of Arts (Guyfesta).
Two different occasions separated by a generation of years, same dispensation, same sentiments, a hallmark of astute leadership!
The vision Jagan had for Guyana in the fields of literature and the arts did not die with the ousting of his party from government. The People’s National Congress (PNC) led by the late Forbes Burnham who was a founder/member of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) carried the torch, flaring up into the Caribbean Festival of Arts (Carifesta) which was launched in Guyana in 1972. The same party under the late Desmond Hoyte established The Guyana Prize for Literature in 1987. Magnanimously, Cheddi Jagan on his return to power in 1992 continued The Prize despite the abandonment of the Cheddi Jagan Gold Medal for Literature and the very useful national exposition, the History and Culture Week. That’s the sort of person Cheddi Jagan was, endorsing things of value.
‘My philosophy: Very Simple - the world is big and can provide amply for all - there need not be poverty and suffering. Man is capable, given the opportunity, of fantastic cultural and intellectual attainment…’
The words of Cheddi Jagan, thinker, prolific writer, and social reformer, who was born in the humblest of situations and went on to become a doctor to ‘cure the ills of society’, the pride of a nation and an icon in Caribbean politics.
Cheddi Jagan was born on March 22, 1918, in Port Mourant, on the Corentyne Coast of Berbice, Guyana. The son of indentured plantation workers, he grew up in a plantation economy with the bittersweet taste of sugar branded on his mind, an influence that was to plot his path to greatness.
David Dabydeen in a poetic tribute to Jagan said, ‘you were born of cane/Not as the planters hoped-/Barefooted, beggarly of mind…’
And indeed, Jagan was only fifteen when he entered Queen’s College in Georgetown, soon after passing the Cambridge, Oxford and School Certificate examinations, factors that came to bear on his father giving him ‘all the money he could muster at the time’ to help the younger Jagan to further his studies in the USA.
In the years between 1936 and 1942, he attended Howard University, Washington, D.C., Central YMCA College, Chicago and Northwestern University Dental School. During those years, he worked at various menial jobs sometimes joggling three jobs at the same time to pay for his education, all the while enduring ‘jim-crow’ discrimination which served to open his eyes to the ills of society. He also studied hard, gaining free tuition for his second year at Howard, and gaining entry to Northwestern University.
While in the United States of America, he read avidly in the social sciences, books as “Nehru’s autobiography, ‘Towards Freedom’ inspired and fired me, Matthew Josephson’s ‘Robber Barons’ explained how the powerful in America had made their fortunes… and Karl Marx’s ‘Capital’ was later to open whole new horizons”. While in Chicago, he married Janet Rosenberg, a union that was to have far reaching changes in Guyana.
Returning home to Guyana, he organised and spearheaded the formation of the Political Affairs Committee and the PAC Bulletin in 1946. The printed word here was of seminal importance.
In 1947, he was elected to the Legislative Council where he ‘literally, almost anything – reports, documents, Hansard – I could lay my hands on, I read’. While imprisoned at Mazaruni jail, he read fiction and wrote copiously. Again and again displaying his respect for literature and his thirst for knowledge, knowledge that he assimilated and distilled in his writings. Mention was already made as to his encouragement of a Guyanese literature. The dissemination of knowledge was done through reading clubs and landmark event like the History and Culture Week.
In 1950, he formed the People’s Progressive Party, executive members then included Forbes Burnham and Janet Jagan. From April to October in the year 1953, Jagan headed the PPP elected government and held the portfolio of Minister of Agriculture.
In 1954, he was imprisoned for six months for breaking movement restrictions order. While he was in jail, his first book, ‘Forbidden Freedom – Story of British Guiana’, was published. This document elucidated how military intervention, which ousted him from power, fitted into both the colonial policy of Britain and the “cold war” spearheaded by the United States. During his incarceration he wrote what is so far his only poem, written on toilet paper (writing paper denied him) which was smuggled out of jail as with all of his other writings he did therein. Even in prison, Jagan, knowing the value of reading, displayed his respect for the printed word. According to Janet Jagan, ‘he organised a reading circle for prisoners and arranged for literature (mostly political) to come into the prison clandestinely, so that prisoners could read and learn’.
At this same time, in another prison, Martin Carter, an activist of the PPP, was composing additional poems which were to make him famous when eventually published under the title, ‘Poems of Resistance’ in 1954.
Books, radical thinking and politics seem to go hand in hand. Martin Carter used to visit the home of the Jagans because of its library. Other writers like Wilson Harris and Jan Carew frequented that home in Laluni Street, Queenstown, for the exchange of books and of ideas, writers – the creators of ideas, fashioning our society. Cheddi Jagan was also a part of the weekly Discussion Circle of the Carnegie Library now the National Library ‘that offered a focal point for dissent and became a stimulating experience; here one was able to speak freely’. Here the literati of the day use to meet, discussing ‘great books of the European Heritage’, according to A. J. Seymour. This reading led to writing, many members of that group became recognized authors and acquired world fame through their books.
In 1966, Jagan published his autobiographical work, ‘The West on Trial’, which is considered ‘a monumental study of the social, political and economic history of Guyana from the time of European colonisation to 1966’. ‘The West On Trial’ was a significant book in the literature of Guyana, filling a lacuna – the dearth of personal writing by public figures and politicians. At the time of writing, the published biographies and autobiographies of Guyanese could easily be cradled in one arm. Of course, now more than ever, there is a need to preserve the history of this country by documenting and publishing the papers (and oral presentations) of our leaders, social and political.
Kellawan Lall pointed out how effective ‘The West on Trail’ was (and still is), ‘people began to see themselves differently and become more self-confident. Dr. Jagan had put them at the centre of his world’!
In 1998, ‘The USA in South America’ was published, providing ‘a perspective on Latin America and superpower relations viewed through a Marxist prism’.
The ideas in his book, ‘A New Global Human Order’, ‘the culmination of Dr. Jagan’s lifelong quest to redress the balance between the rich North and poor South’, published in 1999 have been adopted by the United Nations.
While Cheddi Jagan was writing to a mature readership, Janet Jagan was catering for the taste and need of children. This man and wife combination was effectively reaching out to all Guyana, proving the value and power of the written word. The writings of the Jagans did more to foster understanding among Guyanese than all the talk and walk. A follow up of that writing combination was the establishment of the Cheddi Jagan Children’s Fund which main purpose was to restock school libraries across Guyana.
‘Selected Speeches 1992-1994’ was published 1995, while ‘Selected Correspondences 1953-1965’ was published in 2003. The latter volume is a ‘key reference source on the social and political history’ of this country.
1957 to 1961, Jagan headed the second elected PPP government and was Minister of Trade and Industry.
In 1961, Jagan became the first Premier of British Guiana. During this period of governance, 1961 to 1964, he was instrumental in the establishment the University of Guyana, now forty years on, because an indigenous teaching/learning institution would better serve the need of the country.
On October 9, 1992, after 28 years out of government, Jagan became President of Guyana, a remarkable comeback, in any sphere, in any language!
Cheddi Jagan died on March 6, 1997, while in office, still on the go!
Ian McDonald in his tribute to Jagan in 1997 said, ‘He deserved a few quiet years in the bosom of his family, his party and the nation’. And Janet Jagan who was married to the man since August 5, 1943 knew only too well that her husband was ‘not given enough time’ to write more!
References:
· ‘The West on Trial’
· ‘Thirty Years a Civil Servant’ by A. J. Seymour
· Archive of the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre
· Mirror, Chronicle and Stabroek News newspapers of 1997
· Recent interview with Janet Jagan
Reflection on the Life of Dr. Jagan - Rice Industry
By Dhamramkumar Seeraj, General Secretary, Guyana Rice Producers’ Association.
(Progress Youth Organisation (PYO) Night of Reflection on the Life of Dr. Cheddi Jagan Friday 4th March 2005 at Freedom House.)
Thank you Cde. Chairman, Honourable Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, Former President Cde. Janet Jagan , General Secretary of the PPP, Cde. Donald Ramotar Hon. Minister of Agriculture Cde. Sash Sawh , Ms. Mencedes of the Cuban Embassy President of GAWU Cde. Komal Chand , First Secretary of PYO Dr. Frank Anthony. Ladies & Gentlemen
You would agree with me that to be given ten (10) minutes to make a presentation on the life of Cde. Cheddi Jagan on this, the PYO’s organized Night of Reflection is totally inadequate, and puts the best presenter (and I am not one) under tremendous pressure to do justice to the programme and at the same time leaves you, the audience ( the most important people here) with a beginning and an end.
I will to the best of my ability present to you some aspects of Dr. Jagan’s contribution to the development of the Rice Industry and Rice Farmers in Guyana. History will show that since his birth on the 22/03/1918 on a sugar plantation, throughout his childhood days, and until his untimely death on the 6/03/1997 Dr. Jagan was always close to the sugar industry particularly the ordinary sugar workers.
However, this Great True Son of the Soil also found the time to play a very critical role in the development of Guyana’s Rice Industry and the peasantry.
Speakers before me have more eloquently highlighted aspects of Cde. Cheddi’s life in other areas. I will try to stay with rice. The Guyana Rice Producers’ Association commonly called the RPA was established on the 14th September 1946 under British Rule. This Association’s main function was “to promote , protect and advance the interest of rice producers generally”.
But in 1946 who were the producers of Rice? The production of rice and ownership of rice land was mainly in the hands of the British hence the RPA was servicing the interest of the colonial rulers who were guaranteed a high price on the export market.
The establishment of the Rice Marketing Board by the colonial rulers also contributed to the control of the industry by the colonial masters. Small producers and millers were manipulated and prevented from becoming executive council members of the Rice Marketing Board.
Dr. Jagan fought tirelessly for the inclusion of farmers in the decision making process and also for a comprehensive scheme of water control and for Drainage and Irrigation. Even today Cde. Chairman we hear the name F. E. Hutchinson being mentioned so often, but we do not make the connection to the 1940’s. During that time Mr. Hutchinson was a British Consultant Engineer attached to the Public Works Dept and fully supported the campaign by Dr. Jagan for the earlier mention water control scheme. One that will serve all not a selected few. Sad to say Mr. Hutchinson left shortly in disgust because of the interest to support only sugar with Drainage and Irrigation.
Small farmers who were renting land from the big land owners were also very vulnerable and unprotected. The establishment of the Rice Farmers Security of Tenure Ordinance in 1945 was fully supported by Dr. Jagan who even made suggestions on its improvement.
Today this Act is very much alive and is providing a great deal of protection to rice land tennants. The empowering of farmers under the Rice Producers’ Association was greatly accelerated and speed up by the great organizational skills of Cheddi Jagan at all levels especially at the grass root where he was always welcomed as one of their own.
He actively participated in this process but was not a rice farmer not a rice land owner. To overcome this hurdle in 1956 the father of Pariag Sukhai former General; Secretary of RPA fine Cde. Cheddi two acres o rice land in Hague ,West Coast Demerara.
Armed with the legal requirement to join of the RPA Dr. Jagan quickly became a full member and contested the various elections of the RPA. He soon became the President of the Association and served in this position until 1961 when the PPP won the national elections.
In the early 1960’s the Rice Industry was regulated by the Government agency the Guyana Rice Board or GRB. Under the Jagan led PPP Government the empowerment of rice farmers continued and of the seventeen (17) members Board of Directors and twelve (12) were farmers from the RPA and the Chairman was also a farmers. Men like Mr. Mooner Khan served in this capacity and production increase was a healthy average of 10.6% per annum.
Of course Cde. Chairman such phenomenal growth was not only as a result of good management by the stakeholder in the industry but also gracious budgetary allocation and the will of the farmers to produce in a free environment. Because of the level of support from the Government we could all recall the Jagan led PPP Government being labelled “Rice Government”.
Unfortunately Ladies & Gentlemen the great achievements of the Dr. Jagan Government and his Progressive Policies were closely scrutinized by the United States and Great Britain. Dr. Cheddi Jagan was deemed Communist and we all known very well what happened in the 1963/64 period.
In the post 1964 era events reversed for the Rice Industry. Farmers composition of the Board of Directors of the GRB was gradually reduced by the PNC from 13 of 17 to three by 1978. Finally these three left in disgust in 1978.
The destruction of the Rice Industry accelerated. The Guyana Rice Board(GRB) was divided to from three entities , the Guyana Rice Milling &Marketing Authority (GRMMA), the Guyana Rice Export Board (GREB) and National Paddy &Rice Grading Center (NPRGC). Their basic role was to provide employment for party faithful.
Situation in the fields also deteriorated and drainage and irrigation allocation were scandously low and inadequate. Production drop from over 300,000 tons in the early 1960 to a ridiculous low of 93,000 tons in 1990. The same year we had to import low quality rice from Italy for local consumption.
During the period 1964 to 1992 whilst Dr. Jagan was very active on the political front numerous meetings were still held with farmers. We never give up hope because of his inspiration and finally after 28 years in the political wilderness October 5, 1992 brought the Dawn of a New Era for Cheddi Jagan and Guyana.
The transformation, ladies and gentlemen was awesome. Budgetary allocation for Agricultural infrastructure were increased tremendously, the three entities, GRMMA,GREB and NPRGC were merge to form the GRDB and the farmers through their Association RPA were once again involved in the governance of the Rice Industry.
Rice Production increased from that low of 90,000 tons in 1990 to consistently over 300,000 tons per annum. Through it all President Cheddi Jagan still found time for consultation with the RPA and ordinary farmers. A trait in his character that makes him stand as the genuine stuff, a true leader. We at the RPA still cherished fond memories of Dr. Cheddi Jagan .
We remembered his numerous consultations with Fazal Ali the former late General Secretary of the RPA especially their attendance together to the World Food Summit in Rome in 1996 and their meeting with the Pope.
His premature death on the 6th March 1997 was truly horrifying for all Guyanese. The entire nation was plunged into grief.
Today Cde. Chairman we find some level of comfort in his writings and we take inspiration from his teachings. In particular the New Global Human Order is our most dynamic working document in these troubled times. He will be remembered forever.
Thank you.
