Remembering Cheddi Jagan
Cheddi Jagan, Personal Glimpses
(Text of a Lecture by Minister Gail Teixeira at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, Georgetown, Guyana on March 20th, 2003)
It is always difficult to speak publicly about the person who actually suddenly decided one’s course in life and in doing so, reveal some very personal aspects of one’s life.
For me, Cheddi always was and still is a fundamental and an integral part of my life: there can be no separation of Cheddi from my life, of who I am, and the choices I have made, and in many ways continue to make. When I look back on how all this begin, l have had to recognize that at no time in my life was l not aware of Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s existence and presence.
His presence threaded itself through mine from early childhood. It was a household name and although my father was a United Force man, as an ordinary working man, he had great respect for Cheddi the leader.
I was born one year before the first landslide victory of the People’s Progressive Party at the polls in the first universal adult suffrage elections held in the then British Guiana. Throughout my childhood and the course my life would take, had much to do with developments which unfolded at the international level and right here in Guyana. The decision of my family to immigrate in 1966 was not based on a fear of communism ---which in all the newspapers made the PPP the bogeyman of communism--- rather it was based on the fear of the future and on my father’s belief that he knew where Jagan was going to take him, but he did not trust nor know where Burnham was going to take this country!
It is those days of the anti-colonial struggle in Guyana which were formally embedded in my consciousness from a young age. I remember in my common entrance year at St. Margaret’s Primary School writing a number of essays in my school diary on the violence l experienced around me in Guyana and the war in Viet Nam.
And so at the age of 19, I moved from being a person with rather strong political views to become active in politics in Canada in the struggles against the Vietnam War and that country’s right to self-determination and a return to peace; the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa, and for the liberation of the Portuguese African colonies, mostly on campus and in various non-governmental support bodies. I was one of the founding members of Canadians Concerned about Southern Africa, a broad based group of non-governmental organizations which lobbied the Canadian government to take positions against apartheid in Southern Africa.
The year 1973 was a wake up call for me, it was another rigged election in Guyana and this one actually made it on to the headlines of the Toronto daily newspapers! It was then that this decision was made by me to join Cheddi Jagan and the PPP in the struggle to restore democracy and develop Guyana. I could no longer be a stander-by !
In fact in July this year (2003) I will celebrate my thirtieth anniversary of being involved in formal politics as a politician. So I’m not that young any longer!
In 1973 I joined the Association of Concerned Guyanese, and by 1975 some of the younger members such as Sash Sawh (who is now Minister in this Government), and Geoffrey Da Silva (who was a Minister and now heads GO-Invest) had also joined. We were the young Turks in the Association of Concerned Guyanese. We had lots of energy and a love of Guyana and we greatly missed our country. And so we decided to organize Cheddi’s tour of Toronto in March 1976.
As I said before that I had heard of Cheddi all my life but I had never actually met him--- I’ll give you a wonderful story that will always remains with me!! We had done all the preparatory work for the visit and in the Association of Concerned Guyanese, I was probably the only one who had never met Cheddi. I didn’t know him, he didn’t know me, except maybe through letters that I was then writing as the secretary of the ACG to Janet Jagan. And so, when we got to the airport to greet him, l remember it was freezing cold. There were a large group of Guyanese around us ( only a few us were women) and most of these could say what Cheddi was like and how they met him last and I could say none of those things. So this crowd surged forward to meet Cheddi, to hug him and every thing else and I got stuck at the back because I was also nervous to meet this gentleman. And the crowd parted and he came straight up to me and embraced me, in one of the warmest embrace that I could remember, and he said "you’re Gail!" with that wonderful smile of his. It was that overwhelming embrace of warmth and welcome that told me as a young woman, that I was welcome on board, that there was space for me in the struggle, that there was space for me in the PPP.
During that tour we went to interviews on television and traveled with him early in the morning and I got to know some of his little habits. Some of these intrigued me. In a jam-packed programme, we would find space for him to have a rest and to have something to eat, and he would disappear from us and say "give me ten minutes I will be back". And I thought maybe he would go to freshen up and stuff like that. But he was having a nap. He had an amazing ability to withdraw, have a nap and return refreshed. He was absolutely clear on the time, he never overslept, and many times he did not use a watch. It was his own mental discipline and, he would turn up within the exact time he told you, refreshed, and ready for the road again.
We had organized a public meeting which was extremely well supported with about a thousand people; we had wonderful support from the Guyanese community, from the left movement, Canadians, South Africans, Nicaraguans, Chileans. One should remember that 1973 was also the year when Allende
was overthrown and assassinated.The city of Toronto in those days was very strong in the Peace movement, and the movement of solidarity among the various groups to prevent the removal of democratic governments was very powerful there in those days. So we were going to the meeting and he turned and said to me "you’re speaking." Now I had never spoken on a platform before in my life and I was absolutely petrified and I said so, and he just smiled. He had a way, and I don’t know if he knew I was scared because I always was ---and am scared to speak on a public platform--up to now and right in front of you, I do not like speaking in front of a mike and anybody in the media who deals with me knows this is one of my phobias--- but he had a habit whenever I was with him, and it started in Toronto, that he would give me a little push almost, it was almost between a pat and a push, something that communicated between him and I that would let me know that it was okay to go to it. So that is how and when I began speaking on public platforms.
On the way to the airport, after this mammoth meeting in Toronto, he asked me what were my plans for the future, and I told him that I had started my PhD in political science but that I wanted to come home but I did not want to work with the government of the day.
On my twenty-fourth birthday in July 1976, I got a personal letter from Cheddi Jagan inviting me to return to Guyana as his personal secretary. It was one and still is, one of the most exciting and memorable days of my life! When I look back now, l realize that when I got the letter there was no second thought, there was no thought in my mind that I should consult, that I should talk to some one, talk to my family, friends and that maybe I give it more thought. Of course for my family this was not good news and it was a decision which my parents never forgave me or accepted. This was called a bizarre decision on my part to return alone.
And so began what was my association with Dr. Jagan as his personal secretary from January 1st, 1977 until 1992 October, and then, of course, my own experience not only as his secretary but as an employee at Freedom House, as a party member, as a Central Committee and Executive member of the Party later on, and as a member of his Cabinet in 1992-1997.
When I look back at those days and I look at myself honestly I was not a good personal secretary. I had no training in being a secretary. I had just come out of University and I was always being caught up with anything else going on in the Party, from writing plays, to selling newspapers, to speaking on platforms, and maybe, in many ways I was quite wayward. He also was encouraging you to do more, learn more, experience more. But when I look back l know that he was probably one of the most patient bosses one can ever have wanted as a personal secretary. And so my relationship with him was not just his personal secretary, but as my leader, leader of my party, a person who was my mentor and so many other things wrapped up into one.
It would be remiss of me to not mention Cheddi’s attitude to women in the party and in the broader society. He was the one man l have known who never tried to dissuade any woman from venturing into areas that were seen as male domains. In fact, he kept trying to get women in the party to be more visible and active at the leadership level. A few examples of this was my assignment as the PPP’s commissioner on the Elections Commission in 1979-1980, a consistent member of the PPP’s team in many discussions with other forces from 1978, including being the sole woman on the PCD. He many times challenged male attitudes. I never heard him make a sexist or disrespectful comment about women or to a woman.
And I want to say this; that it was an honour and privilege to serve him and to serve the PPP in the time when he was its leader. The lessons I learnt, and, I think many of us learnt in PPP in those days, no one else could have taught us, no one else could have showed us, no one else could have given us that confidence to try to do many things and to develop many areas of our personalities and knowledge.
He was a leader of the times and a leader for all times. It is the combination of his personality, his beliefs, and the historical period within which he operated that created the context for his greatest contribution to Guyana and to humanity at the global level.
One of the things he never recognized nor fully appreciated that he had and that was something called charisma. Cheddi could walk into a room and smile and disarm people. In fact, I remember orchestrating with my colleagues in the ACG on one of Cheddi’s return visits to Toronto to ensure that my parents were invited to the reception in order to try to help them appreciate, if not understand, what the devil I was involved in. My colleague Sash and others who were still there helped to engineer this.
My parents turned up and Cheddi didn’t know anything about this plot that we had hatched and he charmed my mother so much so that she wrote me afterwards to say that "well I don’t understand your politics; I don’t agree with your politics, but I do understand why you want to work with a man like Cheddi Jagan, I can understand that!" His charisma was not just the charm, it was not the body language, it was an aura--- if you want to say something special that people responded to--- people almost sensually trusted and responded to.I have seen him walking in crowds and the effect he would have on them. For example, his outings during the afternoons to educate the working people at street corners. Remember there was no television and the radio and newspapers were controlled by the PNC government. The two independent newspapers were the MIRROR and the CATHOLIC STANDARD. So the PPP and its leaders had to go out and have more one on one with the people. After having his little afternoon nap, and he would pick up his chart on the IMF, on the Economy showing how much money was being spent on the military, how much had been spent on Health and Education, the debt problem and the need to have Debt relief in Guyana and we would head out, he would grab people like Rohee and myself or any one visiting Freedom House to come on out and follow him, to Regent Street, or further a field to Tiger Bay and so on. He would set up his chart and would start explaining to people about the economy, complex issues which many people believe that ordinary people cannot understand. He broke down some of the most complex political and economic theories and concepts into ways in which every body could understand. So it was the combination of all those factors, he could go into a crowd in a market and people would respond to him they would smile or spar with him--- even if before you had just heard them when you were trying to sell then a Mirror newspaper, curse the PPP or curse Jagan--- and he would turn up and some thing would happen. Whether one wants to call it some magical thing or whether he was one of those blessed people who was given that special quality----one which he used for positive purposes and not for his own personal aggrandizement as many other leaders have done who may have also been given that gift.
He had an amazing recall for figures, statistics and names of people. He could remember names of people in areas that he had not met for years and years, an amazing mental alacrity, mental ability and mental and physical discipline. I am not talking about the eight to four person, I’m not talking about the person who is robotic, I’m talking about the person who was mentally disciplined, emotionally disciplined, psychologically disciplined, physically disciplined and so you have heard comrade Janet talk about his diet and his exercise, all these things were absolutely true. But he was also extremely disciplined in so many other many ways; he knew how to balance stress and to keep an inner equilibrium that never let him become defeated after each rigged election, as each year crept on and there was no change. He doggedly knew that one day Guyana would be able to return to democracy and he was doing everything possible to make that happen.
He had an extraordinary mental recall and memory; he was an avid reader and an avid writer -even when he got older. I sit some times and remember how he could tell me which article he had read, or which writer to go look for a source that he wanted to include in whichever was the latest article or speech he was writing or book he was trying to write.
He encouraged you to think and not to be dogmatic and not to be a robot, not to be someone who just "parotted" what is a going thing. He encouraged polemical debates and discussions and encouraged his thoughts and arguments being challenged as these only helped to fructify his own ideas. All his work reflects his attempt to analyze the world as it is and to look at the world in the future.
In his writings where he developed the concept of a New Global Human Order, this is his creation and the culmination of his thoughts over a long period of analysis. His vision of the world in which there are equitable trade relations, where there is harmony between the South and the North, between East and West, between South and South; it is his belief that human development cannot take place without democracy as a vital component; that human rights, political, economic, social and cultural rights are all integral components of sustainable human development. He pre-occupies over the struggle against poverty and to improve the conditions of lives of the ordinary people in Guyana and all over the world. Through the collection of speeches, he talks about the coalition of forces left, democratic, progressive private sector and government to bring change in the world. The fact that his proposal for the New Global Human Order became a resolution passed at the United Nations General Assembly and adopted in the year 2000 is to his credit.
On rereading his book entitled "The New Global Human Order", and comparing it with the 2002 comments made by Mr. McKinnon, Head of the Commonwealth, where the latter calls for globalization with a human face in order to reduce some of its harsh impact on people’s lives, especially poor people in the developing world, and for more equitable trade relations, one recognizes that Cheddi’s analyses written over decades were ahead of his time. Ironically for some, it was his very political ideology that allowed him to have a profound understanding of global developments.
Maybe after last night and the invasion of Iraq, we may be need to look back at Cheddi’s writings. We are in a world now where unilateralism not multilateralism has taken a dominant position, a world in which the United Nations will have to rethink its role; a world in which visionary political leaders would have to emerge to mend many bridges so that multilateralism, international solidarity and the universality of issues and struggle will once again have its rightful space on the world agenda.
I think he was a visionary, in so many ways. I will try to relate some of the areas of his thinking. First peace was an overall concern- global peace, peace within Guyana, peace for Guyana with its neighbours – Venezuela, Brazil and Suriname. One must remember the Cold War still existed. He was a true internationalist. In those days if you called yourself an internationalist you were interpreted to be a communist. I now listen to the BBC, CNN and I hear political leaders with no left-leaning being called internationalists.
Interestingly, the world’s political nomenclature of left thinking that was used then, in a sanitized version today has gained a certain level of acceptability. So words such as proletariat has been changed to workers’ representatives, issues of the coalition of left, right and Centre and so on are now referred to as civil society or inclusive governance and power-sharing --changes in words to make them more acceptable in political parlance but holding fundamentally the same meaning. This influence of left thinking and language into the global political language should not be underestimated as there was a time when the western powers had to accede to this influence even though subsequently this was--- as l said-- sanitized to remove the leftist content.
Peace was an overall concern and unity for Guyana. How could he bring that about? How could he bring a fragile society, fragile economically dependent on primary products and at the mercy of fluctuating world prices, a fragile society in terms of its cultural and ethnic diversity, a fragile environment and politically divided into a united whole?
It is to the credit of Cheddi and a reflection of the "largesse" of his person that in the midst of repeated rigged elections, he is thinking about building bridges and partnerships and getting people involved. He wants to find an answer, a solution, a path to take Guyana and its people forward.
After independence and after two rigged elections, one of his early proposals which he called Critical Support was one which many people did not like nor did they understand. How can one support a government on some issues such as its progressive foreign policy and lend it critical support while that government at the same time was stealing one’s votes? Yet today, the concept of critical support is now accepted and practiced at the international level as a very dynamic approach in terms of preventative diplomacy.
Another of his early proposals in the 1975 period, was that of a National Patriotic Front and National Patriotic Front Government. Again this was a radical and very progressive proposal but difficult to understand. Again it comes after an election is stolen where one’s seats in Parliament are further miniaturized and where there is no support at the regional or international levels, and ,even in Guyana itself the PPP is just beginning to scratch the surface in terms of winning support beyond the party’s mass base. The return of people like Dr. Walter Rodney and the emergence of the Movement Against Oppression and the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) offer opportunities for broadening the democratic forces.
These two concepts of Critical Support and the National Patriotic Front are extremely visionary especially in the political and historical context of those times and are a reflection of the magnanimous nature of Cheddi as a political leader and statesman. It may be on these concepts in the 1970-79 period that he built and developed his other approaches to alliance politics and partnerships later on. It is in the 1978-79 period, he tries to open relations with other forces beyond the PNC government; he develops a working relationship with the early WPA and makes overtures to the religious leaders, the Bishops of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches and the Hindu and Muslim leaders. He attempted to approach a number of small fringe parties, many of those no longer existed by the 1980-2 period. The PPP becomes an integral and accepted partner in a number of broader based groupings that emerge in the later 1970s and early 1980’s for boycotting the referendum and exposing the excesses of the PNC regime.
He led by example and convinced his party leaders to learn to sit across the table with people who may have interfered with you, assaulted you just a few days before, and, to struggle to find a forum ---a political space for discussion and common approaches on issues of mutual interest. This approach then evolves into his concept of "winner does not take all" politics. The whole concept that "winner does not take all" is in itself radical, especially in the late 1970s. That concept gained greater international acceptability only in the late 1990s and the turn of this century as a means to find ways to bring some form of working resolution to strife-ridden countries.
The assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney in 1980 was a double-edged sword; it dealt a grievous blow to the newly emerging democratic forces but it also had a galvanizing effect on them. The funeral march from Buxton to Le Repentir cemetery was a mass outpouring of thousands of Afro- and Indo- Guyanese as never seen before.
By early 1986, after the December 1985 rigged elections (the first under President Hoyte who took over on the death of President Burnham and which is considered the worst rigged election recorded !), the forces for democracy were growing and one begins to now see the visible involvement of a larger group of civil society representatives, religious bodies and progressive individuals coming on board. It is in this period that the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy is born and it is in this period that there is the formalization of this Alliance made up originally of five opposition parties (the PPP, the WPA, Democratic Labour Movement, The People’s Democratic Movement and the National Democratic Front) increasing to 6 parties by 1990 (The United Force and the United Republican Party) to create a united basis for the restoration of democracy and free and fair elections.
It is through this grouping that Cheddi hoped that he may be able to foster an electoral alliance and that maybe this grouping can form a new government. He knew fully well that the PPP on its own could win the majority of votes and form the government at a free and fair elections but he was concerned about the sustainability of that government , and whether that government would be allowed to govern if it could not win the confidence of all citizens.
The attempts at achieving this, however, failed abysmally, not because of Cheddi or the PPP and l want to go on record for saying this for whatever its worth. I was the secretary and the spokesperson of the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy in those days. I read many articles being written about the PCD and the cause of its dissolution and its failure to progress to an electoral alliance from an alliance to win free and fair elections. The history of the PCD is still to be written and in fact, the history of all the many attempts at building alliances and partnerships in Guyana over 50 years is still outstanding and waiting to be written!
But it is within the PCD where the story emanated of when Cheddi meets with members of civil society and political leaders in 1991--where Cheddi and the broader democratic forces were interested in examining many formulae of power sharing in what the new government would look like---Cheddi is told that "we know the PPP can win but the police and the army because they are predominantly black will never accept nor support you, Jagan. They will revolt and therefore you should not be President." In a flash of a second, Cheddi turned to the group and said, "If not me then maybe Dr. Roger Luncheon because he is a leader of our party. I don’t have to be the President" and that is when the famous rebuttal is made that Roger may be black but he is red ! And so the ideological issue was as much a concern for some people in those days as was the ethnic one. The talks collapsed amongst the 6 parties in the PCD in 1991 because the proposal made by the WPA that they would accept Cheddi as President in the new government but that the PPP should occupy only 13% of the seats regardless of what it had won at the polls and that all the other seats would be divided amongst the other parties in the then opposition.
Amazingly, shortly after the PCD failed to become an electoral alliance, a new grouping was created by civil society and some political parties called GUARD. One of the spokespersons GUARD was promoting as a new leader is a Mr. Samuel Hinds, a person who has no political allegiance, an unknown person in the political realm and unknown in Georgetown. He was a well respected engineer and technical director of LINMINE, the bauxite company.
Although Cheddi was not deterred by the collapse of the PCD, he still wanted to further his belief that a "winner does not take all" approach to the upcoming elections in 1991 (later postponed to October 1992) was the best option to build confidence and unity in a post-free and fair elections government and thereby allow for a more peaceful transition. He therefore attempts to bring in new forces into discussions with him in the hope of finding an alternative to the PCD. Thus he approaches Sam Hinds to meet him.
It must be remembered that this individual is not known to the party leadership. However, what is significant is that a very special relationship evolves between these two gentlemen based on mutual trust and admiration. They are both men of integrity. It is through the meeting of these two men with others and some new individuals that a new concept of an alliance of individuals lending support to the PPP’s leadership evolves. Hence the PPP/Civic is born made up of individuals, some former members of the PNC, some were officials in Burnham’s government, some were formerly members of other parties in the past. It is an alliance of individuals who decide to support Cheddi for President and the PPP in government. The PPP/C is born in 1991 and supported by the PPP Congress in Georgetown in that year. The Congress goes further and supports the combination of Cheddi Jagan for President and Sam Hinds as the Prime Ministerial candidate. Thus, a new political tradition is born at this point of naming the two top candidates which was never done before and which is now copied by other political parties in subsequent elections.
The significance of the Party Congress supporting this rather magnanimous inclusion of unknown forces should be underlined and is a reflection not only of Cheddi’s persuasive powers but also a reflection of the level of political maturity of its members.
It is this Alliance, devoid of any formality, memorandum of understanding or formulae that is Cheddi’s special creation. After what is now twelve years and 11 years in government, the PPP/C is still alive and kicking. It is still strong and it defies logic as it continues to have no formal structure. It is a unique and special form of alliance as it is based on unwritten values, ethics and a common understanding. This concept was not only implemented at the national level for central government but also at the regional level in the 1992 elections. The genesis and history of PPP/Civic as a government needs to written as there is no other such type of government in the world.
And so, in fact, in the PPP/C you have not only "winner does not take all" but you have representatives and persons who came from other parties who now form one unit, one government, in which they bring in their own views, their own ideological political interests and so on and their own constituencies and their own class interests. It is also one model of inclusive government and power-sharing. It is a very, very special arrangement which I don’t think many people understand; people think that it is something very formal. Ironically, its success lies in its very informality as it is a dynamic and flexible union of individuals with a very large mass party that can bring in the votes that has created something special in the history of our country and I believe in the annals of political history in the world. This was Cheddi Jagan’s creation which has gone unrecognized.
The PPP/Civic is further developed and expanded when at the first local government elections in 20 years the lists of candidates for the municipal and Neighbourhood Councils encompassed individuals that were not PPP members. In the appointment of state boards, this inclusion is expanded.
It is also important to illustrate Cheddi’s method and style of decision making. Did Cheddi just say he had an idea, a new proposal and come to his leadership and just say okay guys, tomorrow we’ll be going with a National Patriotic Front approach , or winner does not take all or PPP/C ? One of the most complex issues with Cheddi Jagan is not only his process of his thinking but also the process of decision making and the two were intertwined. He was guided by his political world view which was based on a number of universal values of humanitarianism and equality, of justice, and of sustainable human development. This meant that in the process of deduction in which he would analyze a given situation he always sought to find out why did this happen, what were the reasons for it, how could it be changed, what were the repercussions , what were possible solutions down the road. It was in this process of deduction and his thinking aloud that it was probably some of the most exciting periods to be around him because that’s when he wanted to talk, that’s when he wanted to bounce ideas and through polemical discussions test his opinions. This style of coming to conclusions continued when he was President.
For example, before we got into Government in 1992, he created a number of committees on various areas of importance to help craft our positions/policies in anticipation that the PPP/C would win government. There were committees on the environment, on bauxite, on electricity and energy, on national resources and the economy and so on. The members of these small committees cum think tanks were comprised of a broad cross-section of technical people, both in and outside the PPP/C including overseas Guyanese who lent their expertise to Cheddi. He wanted that when the PPP/C got into government we would be able to move Guyana forward as quickly as possible. And so it is that interesting period of 1991 to 1992, in particular, you find a range of people who were very close to the former government or who were working with the government sharing their expertise in order to bring change to their country.
It is because of his insistence of always embracing and creating openings for outsiders that l referred to my experience when l met him in Toronto. What I realized in later years was that in fact he was always looking for a political opening, an opening for many people whether they believed in the PPP or not, that there was space for them once they were patriots and wanted to help Guyana move forward. And so, when he would have an idea or a different proposal he wanted to make he would go through this kind of sounding with different people including people within his party involving formal levels of the party. Let me tell you he did not always win all the battles but the wonderful thing is that once he was sure that he was right he would bring all his persuasive skills and intellectual knowledge to bear; he believed that the more information he gave the more people could understand the complexity of the situation. If his idea or proposal was defeated or failed to convince his leadership, he would do a tactical retreat and come back a few months later ready to answer the concerns of his comrades and try again to win them over and many of those times he did succeed. But he never won an argument by reminding people that he was the General Secretary and the Leader. I never witnessed that!
There are so many other issues to talk about but l have focused on this democratic approach to decision-making as it was an integral part of what was instilled in the PPP, it was also instilled in how the PPP/C took office.
I recall his speech at his inauguration as President on October 9th, 1992 where he committed himself and the government to a process to restore democracy in Guyana and the process of reconstructing our country and developing Guyana and making it a model for the region and the world.
In office he wanted to bring change as quickly as possible; and sometimes, I think that at a certain stage, it was if time was going too quickly for him. I will always think in hindsight that it was as if an inner clock was telling him that his time was coming to an end. He was healthier than many physically and mentally, but, it was almost as if some clock was warning him that time was going. In the last year before he died he became impatient with getting the machinery of government to move faster and to bring changes quicker.
Probably one of the most wonderful things for him was the public apology by Arthur Schlesinger, junior (former advisor to President J. F. Kennedy) for what was done to Cheddi in the 1960s by the American Government. This vindication of Cheddi was long in coming; in fact all of us were delighted that it finally had been said. He was so pleased and I remembered him having a delightfully mischievous smile on his face that day.
In government he had to confront many issues of a country which was near collapse, a treasury that was empty, an economy near collapse, a dilapidated infrastructure and broken-down health and education sectors. He was expected to find answers. And he had to find funds to finance the reconstruction of the economy, society and political life of the country. He had to come to terms with his own political world view in relation to the IMF and privatization of state entities; this posed challenges to his own world view. But he was no ideologue as some would wish to portray him; he confronted the reality of the country and choices he had to make and negotiated for the best that he could obtain from the international financial institutions without selling out his country or people as other leaders were compelled to do. In doing so, he coined the phrase which became part of the parlance of the PPP/C in government of "walking between the raindrops", always hoping that raindrops were well spaced to allow for as much maneuverability as possible.
He was convinced that the PPP/C would lead in making Parliament a truly deliberative forum and address constitutional reform, particularly what was known as the "Burnham’s presidential imperial powers". The latter he started in 1995-1996 after many delays as the PNC opposition was not interested at that time in amending the constitution. They only became champions for constitutional reform after he died and after the December 1997 elections which they lost.
In conclusion, Cheddi educated the entire nation and raised their political consciousness so that even today Guyanese are considered the most politically conscious population in the region. He influenced an entire generation of young leaders in the Caribbean; he cultivated and encouraged young Caribbean leaders such as Tim Hector, Maurice Bishop, Rosie Douglas, Dr. R. Gonsalves, and many others. Unfortunately Rosie, Tim and Maurice are no longer with us.
He loved to have political debates with young people; he was invigorated by the energy and passion of young people within his party and outside who challenged him. He was not afraid to be challenged; in fact he loved a challenge as this gave him an opportunity to present his views and arguments.
On the softer side, Cheddi loved being with children. I remember always a certain period when Cheddi and I had some major disagreements and we had some ding dong differences and he knew that I was upset and angry. But later that day as it was his day off and it was during the July-August holidays, he stopped and picked up my children and other comrades’ children and took them all swimming. Of course when I came home my children were sun-burnt and happy and delighted to be with Cheddi and Cheddi the President! After that how could l be angry with him? This was the way between him and I that we had our own forgiveness.
My children up to day remember the fun they had on these swimming days with Cheddi, and l am glad they and other children got the opportunity to know him, the person.
Over these years the fundamental qualities of his personality remained steadfast.
When I look back over the six years since his death there have been retrogressive shifts in global politics and the global economy and yet so much is still valid about what he spoke about. We have to fight to strengthen multilateralism at the global level and to continue to struggle for equitable trade relations and less onerous conditions for developing countries. The world has changed and yet in some ways it has not changed.
Last night I was looking at the television and stunned by the horror of war where people can from their living rooms watch a war unfolding with each bomb that is dropped. War has become sanitized like a video game or war movie. I listened to the journalists and wonder about what kind of world we are living in which has become so insensitive or desensitized to the horrors of war, and I can hear as I was writing and watching this in my mind, what Cheddi would have to say about this.
Cheddi Jagan was of the ilk of a generation of leaders such as Mandela in South Africa, Lumumba in Congo, Allende in Chile, Fidel Castro in Cuba and Njumo in Namibia and many others at a period in history which produced some of the most outstanding leaders in the developing world. For Cheddi after 28 years in opposition to return and win at its first free and fair elections was historic and rarely accomplished. This was a testimony to the leader and statesman he was; his relevance and universality to the Guyanese people.
Many have tried and still try to fit him into a category-- Communist, Marxist-Leninist etc. But in life as in death, his political thinking and writings and style of leadership defies categorization. He was a visionary who was compelled to offer solutions to end injustice and exploitation globally, to restore democratic rule and reconstruct a nation that had been battered at all levels – economically, politically, ethnically and culturally. No other leader in Guyana’s history thus far struggled so consistently to find mechanisms to unite the nation both when he was outside and inside government. His political thinking, writing and actions record these efforts over 5 decades. His entire life was dedicated unequivocally and unstintingly to driving these processes for change and unity.
The overwhelming love and respect by Guyanese throughout this nation for this dignified and charismatic leader unfolded beyond anyone’s imagination at his passing and at his funeral.
The nation was better for having had this born leader in its presence for over 5 decades. This is Cheddi Jagan’s life testimony that will be there forever as an example to the next generation of leaders.
Thank you