Tributes to Cheddi Jagan
CHEDDI JAGAN — STATESMAN AND VISIONARY
by Odeen IshmaelDr. Cheddi Jagan firmly established himself as a statesman of no mean calibre long before other politicians in the Caribbean region ever thought of venturing out from their insular arenas to hesitantly grapple with international issues impacting on the social and economic development of the world at large. While it is true that Dr. Jagan, from his first entry into politics, was deeply interested in winning political independence for Guyana, at the same time, he was very vocal in championing the independence movements of Africa and the Caribbean. To do so showed immensed political and moral courage since many politicians of the period of the 1950s were not prepared to step out of their creases to challenge the might of the imperial powers. It is, therefore, from his early years as a politician that Dr. Jagan displayed the signs of a statesman in the making. Even after his removal from power in 1964 through the covert and overt actions of local and international forces, his tenacity as a political fighter for the working people, and for the poor and downtrodden in all parts of the world, made him into a figure of international renown, while his writings on international political, economic and social issues placed him among the highest ranks of the great thinkers of the developing world.
Global Strategy
Immediately after his election, Dr. Jagan wrote to world leaders expressing his ideas for the establishment of a New Global Human Order. The ideas were developed over a period of time during which the Guyanese leader carefully examined previous international proposals aimed at alleviating social and economic ills worldwide, and combining some of these ideas with fresh ones of his own. new. He then explained very clearly how the ideas could actually be implemented, and how funding could be obtained to put the necessary action programs on stream. He outlined a global strategy which would benefit both the North and South and which would lead to sustainable development, democracy, peace, freedom and social progress.
This strategy, which has been endorsed by other Caribbean leaders, and which continues to be proagated, envisages a program targeted at the most burning issues of unemployment, poverty and hunger and calls for a radical reform North/South program which must include, inter alia, a works-program for physical, social and cultural infrastructures; tax and other incentives for the use of technology which will create jobs instead of destroying them; a new EU/ACP Lome Convention with enhanced assistance for the developed countries; and debt relief for the developing countries.
The proposals set out by President Jagan certainly were expressed in various forms before. But where he differed in his approach was that he saw the establishment of a New Global Human Order as an incremental process — a process which would indeed take some time to materialize should the appropriate reforms and programs put in place within certain periods.
Winnable Ideas
At first, there were some commentators who felt that that Dr. Jagan's ideas were utopian, that they would not catch on, and that they would not engender discussions. Some even went so far as to say that no political body would seriously try to implement any of the ideas for a long, long time. But as President Jagan himself said, many ideas which seemed utopian eventually became accepted as realistic and practicable. As such, the Government of Guyana consistently since 1993 propagated the proposition at all local, regional and international forums. At first, it took some time to bite, but gradually — most likely because of the consistency of Guyana — a number of Governments began to develop an interest in it.
At the Commonwealth Conference in Auckland early in 1996, President Jagan spoke on the importance of a New Global Human Order for the entire world, and after he met with Commonwealth leaders in bilaterals, a new interest in the idea sprang up, particularly among the African leaders who are now themselves making their own suggestions on how it should be implemented.
The biggest breakthrough so far is the adoption of the proposal for the establishment of the New Global Human Order by the governments of CARICOM. The regional body, under the guidance of Guyana, has agreed to push the proposal at all forums. In October 1996, at the UN General Assembly, Guyana and Grenada, took the opportunity to call for its implementation at regional and international levels.
Miami Summit Proposals
Let us deal with some specific areas. In 1994 at the Summit of the Americas in Miami, Guyana made three vibrant proposals aimed at assisting in the establishment of at least a part of the New Global Human Order. Guyana called for a team of experts from outside the multilateral financial institutions to formulate new ideas on how to solve the debt crisis affecting many poor developing countries in this hemisphere. Guyana also urged the establishment of a development corps of volunteers to supplement the work of the proposed White Helmets organization. And anticipating economic fallout in the poorer countries with the eventual establishment of free trade in the Americas, Dr. Jagan proposed the establishment of a regional development fund, fashioned more or less like that of the European development fund which assists the weaker economies in the European Union.
Debt Relief
What were the results of all of these demands? After much debate, the Guyana delegation got the Summit to agree that a specially appointed committee would be set up to review a number of financial issues, and that the problems of debt should be examined with the assistance of ideas drawn from a broad range of expertise. This is written in the Action Plan of the Summit of the Americas. Out of this we are now seeing the spin-off. More and more countries are spotlighting the issue of debt relief, and recently Guyana obtained some relief from the Paris Club and from Trinidad and Tobago. In November, Germany also agreed to write off 67 percent of the debt Guyana owes to that country. And recently, the United States pitched in to write off a total of US$10 million of Guyana's debts.
In early October 1996, the World Bank and the IMF agreed to granting debt relief for a number of poor countries including Guyana. It will be recalled that when President Jagan had first touted the idea that the multilateral financial institutions (MFIs) should look at the possibility of debt relief and debt forgiveness, there were many "doubting Thomases" in the international arena, and even specialists working in these MFIs who said that the idea was not feasible. It was utopian and not practicable to them. Now we are seeing a turn around from these very multilateral institutions, albeit slowly, but we have moved them and they need to be pushed forward to do more.
Recently, the IMF/World Bank agreed to forgive the debts of a number of poor countries in Africa. The institution have also announced that the forgiveness of some of the debts of Guyana and Bolivia is being actively considered.
Development Corps
Then there is the idea of the development corps of volunteers. A little explanation is needed here. A few years ago, the President of Argentina, Carlos Menem, proposed the establishment of a volunteer group known as the White Helmets to be deployed to assist in emergency situations in various countries. This group would be under the control of the United Nations. At the Summit, Dr. Jagan proposed that the White Helmets program should be expanded to also assist in special social and economic programs in the Americas. It was from the Guyanese leader that the idea of a "development corps of volunteers" emanated. He envisaged a hemispheric corps of volunteers, more or less like the US Peace Corps, but drawn from specialist volunteers from all the countries of the hemisphere to be deployed to assist on special social and economic development projects in various countries. This amendment was agreed to, but even though the White Helmets has now been organized and assisting in emergency situations in a number of countries in and out of this hemisphere, the development corps aspect of it is still not yet off the ground, ostensibly from a lack of funding. However, at various levels, Guyana and other countries in the hemisphere are pressing for its establishment as soon as possible.
Regional Fund
In the proposal for the New Global Human Order, President Jagan saw the need for an international fund to be managed by the UN and shows how the money can be obtained. The general idea of this proposal is that the fund would be made available to all countries — developed and underdeveloped. The developing countries would use it to upgrade their infrastructure and industrial base, thus creating more jobs and ultimately improving the standard of living for their peoples. They in turn would demand more goods which generally come from the developed countries. This will spur more job opportunities in these countries as well. Surely, this will help a far way in fighting poverty in both developed and developing countries.
The regional development fund is seen an extension of this international fund and it is proposed with a specific purpose in mind. With the advent of free trade on the establishment the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA) by 2005, it is expected that the countries with weaker economies — like those in CARICOM — will be faced with distinct disadvantages in trying to compete with the larger and stronger economies in the region. The proposed regional development fund would be made available to the weaker economies to help cushion the economic fallout, while at the same time used to develop their infrastructure and industrial base to place them on a somewhat leveler playing field to compete with the stronger economies.
When Guyana first made this proposal, all other countries sidestepped away from it. Some wondered where the funds would come from; the powerful countries somehow felt that they would be called upon to provide some of the funds; so the idea was not very popular. Even some of our own associates in CARICOM felt that while it would help solve many of the economic problems in the region, it was asking too much at the present time. Maybe, they though this, too, was utopian.
But here again persistence on the part of Guyana has paid off. First of all, at the meeting in preparation for the Denver Trade Ministerial in 1995 to discuss the mechanics of the proposed FTAA, Guyana was one of the few countries that called for the establishment of a Working Group on Smaller Economies to examine the effects that free trade would have on poorer countries in the hemisphere. There was strong resistance to this, but with support from CARICOM and Central America, that battle was won. Guyana thought that this was strategic since within this Working Group the poorer countries could make demands for programs beneficial to them. It is in this group that Guyana continues to wage the fight for the regional development fund. By explaining the workings of this proposed fund, new converts are being won. Bolivia has recently suggested that such a fund must be established to assist smaller economies, and CARICOM has since adopted the idea as a Caribbean initiative. A recent meeting of heads of CARICOM governments in Jamaica agreed to restyle the initiative as the Regional Integration Fund, an idea which is now gaining support from Central America. Significantly, at the joint meeting of CARICOM and Central American Foreign Ministers in Costa Rica in early December 1996, the Central Americans gave total support to the proposal for the establishment of the Fund.
On March 13, Dr. Jagan in a feature address to the sixth meeting of the Working Group on the Smaller Economies in Georgetown challenged all the hemispheric nations to adopt the RIF proposal. The meeting later unanimously agreed to do a technical study of the RIF and to make recommendations as to how the objectives of the proposed fund could be achieved. This decision surely was a forward step in the materialization of the idea of the great Guyanese visionary.
These are just some of the main aspects of the international legacy of Dr. Cheddi Jagan. It is a legacy which portrays the humane quality of this renowned intellectual, thinker and statesman. There he was in the final years of his life devoting all of it for the economic and social upliftment of the lives of not only the Guyanese people, but especially also of those of the poorer countries of the world. He was an internationalist in the truest sense. He was a statesman who lived for this time and beyond.
(The writer is Guyana's Ambassador to the United States and Permanent Representative to the OAS)
May 6, 1997
Cheddi Jagan — Man Of The Century
by H.Z. Ally
We are living in truly exciting times. The end of one century and the beginning of another are part of a unique historical moment, which not many of the earth’s population is fortunate to experience.For most people, the dawn of the new millennium of the 21st century is something they have been eagerly looking forward to. There is something inexplicably mystifying about the year 2000. There are even talks about some impending ‘catastrophe’ which could potentially destroy the whole of humanity.
Just in case you may be getting a bit scared, let me hasten to say that there is no ‘scientific’ basis for such pessimism. Such feelings of ‘foreboding’ exist purely in the imagination of men and women, many of whom are fed up with the rigours of daily existence and long for a better life — possibly in the hereafter.
Yet the 20th century is one of most momentous in the history of human society. Advances in science and technology have brought continents and people together in a way never heretofore imagined. The conquest of outer space and the almost preposterous advances in information and communications technology have reduced the entire world into what is commonly referred to as a ‘global village.’
No less significant has been the emergence and eventual collapse of an entirely new system of political and social organization — the world socialist system. The entire socialist bloc — Eastern Europe and the USSR came tumbling down, following the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
The century also saw two devastating World Wars in which tens of millions of lives were lost, not to mention destruction to property and human civilization. For the first time, modern science and technology were put in the service of human destruction as the ravages of Nagasaki and Hiroshima so painfully reminded us.
The closing years of the 20th century saw positive developments in the evolution of human society. Dictatorships especially in Africa and Latin America gave way to multi-party democracies.
Apartheid rule in South Africa was replaced by majority rule. Palestine became partially free after years of Zionist domination. Closer home, dictatorial rule in Haiti was forced to yield ground to the forces of democracy.
Here is Guyana, after some 28 years of authoritarian rule by the unpopular PNC, democracy was finally restored in October 1992. The absence of democracy in Guyana (as indeed in other parts of the world) saw a steady decline in living standards reaching a stage where Guyana was rated the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and among the poorest in the world, thanks to the People’s National Congress.
This is why it is important not to allow the dark forces of reaction to rear their ugly heads.
For us in Guyana, the 20th century has not been altogether unkind, the evils of colonialism and the PNC notwithstanding. The period saw the rise of militant leaders in the persons of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, Cheddi and Janet Jagan. The latter two have played a significant role in awakening and shaping the consciousness of the Guyanese people, in particular the working people.
Without doubt, the most influential and charismatic leader in Guyana and the entire Anglophone Caribbean has been Dr Cheddi Jagan, rightly regarded as Father of the Guyanese Nation. It is hardly surprising therefore that the People’s Progressive Party which he co-founded in January 1950 saw it fit to name him the ‘Man of the Century’.
A productive 2000 to all Guyanese!
Choosing of national heroes - Trio of Jagan, Critchlow and Carter
by Rickey Singh
LIKE Trinidad and Tobago, but unlike Jamaica and, more recently Barbados, Guyana has not shown any official interest in identifying and legalising national heroes.As in other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states, it has its own system of National Awards, the highest being the Order of Excellence (OE). Among the OE recipients have been the late President Forbes Burnham, the assassinated historian Walter Rodney, and former President Janet Jagan, widow of the legendary Cheddi Jagan.
With the exception of Cuffy, the revolutionary leader of the Berbice Slave Rebellion of 1763, there are no official national heroes of Guyana, the CARICOM state that was foremost in the struggle for national and regional independence in the English-speaking Caribbean.
Cuffy, the house slave of that unsuccessful rebellion of the 18th century died by committing suicide. He was proclaimed a National Hero of the Republic of Guyana with the unanimous approval of a resolution in parliament supported by the then governing People's National Congress and the then opposition People's Progressive Party.
It was the first time that African slaves in the Caribbean had rebelled against their oppression, and it came some 28 years before the only successful revolution by slaves in this hemisphere - the Haitian revolution of Toussaint L'Ouverture in 1791.
The social scientist and political activist Eusi Kwayana, credited with writing the official songs of both the PPP and PNC - with which he was once prominently identified at varying periods - was to place, at the time of Guyana's independence in 1966, the 1763 revolt in the context of "the first blow struck for Guyanese independence".
Now that the PPP, the first national movement in the modern history of Guyana against imperialism and colonialism is marking its 50th birth anniversary this month, there are some in and out of government who think it is perhaps appropriate that the party shows some interest in influencing its own government to initiate moves for a National Heroes project.
Following President Jagan's death in March 1997, and amid some orchestrated political controversy against renaming the international airport at Timehri after him, I recall an initiative in parliament by the WPA's representative for the establishment of a parliamentary committee to come up with proposals on how best to commemorate the memory of the late President.
Therefore, in this year when the party of which he was founder-leader from its inception up to the time of his death, is celebrating its golden jubilee, the suggestion is that the PPP/Civic administration should consider establishment of a national committee to identify those who in the popular consciousness of the Guyanese masses are already National Heroes.
Once recommended, the choice or choices could then be forwarded to parliament for approval to give legal status to such hero or heroes. In April 1998, the Barbados parliament approved the country's first 10 National Heroes.
Guyana, of course, does not have to go that route in choosing that many at the beginning of such an effort in the process of re-education and building of national consciousness and pride.
Nor does Trinidad and Tobago, should Prime Minister Basdeo Panday's government decide to institute its own system of legally establishing National Heroes - Eric Williams being an unavoidable first choice. Jamaica has been introducing its National Heroes in batches over a period of years.
National Heroes should not be confused with personalities of national stature, outstanding leaders in various fields of endeavour, politics, culture or else.
To qualify as a National Hero, the individual's outstanding contributions must at least have some measure of national acceptance without any attempt to falsify history or expediently ignore serious wrongs committed against the society.
In any objective and serious assessment of the social and political history of Guyana, Cheddi Jagan, whose name is synonymous with the country's struggles for political freedom, democracy and social justice, can hardly be omitted from those whose credentials would readily recommend them as National Heroes of the country.
Labour's Critchlow
Likewise, in the field of trade unionism and culture Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, pioneer of trade unionism in the Caribbean, and the poet Martin Carter, clearly merit to be included in the first batch of National Heroes of Guyana.The present generation of Guyanese seem to know little about Critchlow, even though more are acquainted with the poetry of Carter. Together, Jagan, Carter and Critchlow make an ideal trio of National Heroes.
Given the nature of divisive politics in Guyana, it is to be expected that there will be those who will also want to include Forbes Burnham, the founder-leader of the PNC and first Executive President as a National Hero.
It is reasonable to assume that while it would be most surprising to experience any controversy over the choice of Cheddi Jagan, Martin Carter and Hubert Critchlow as National Heroes, the same cannot be said with any seriousness in the case of Forbes Burnham.
Unless much of what went wrong, terribly wrong under his long years in power, a period involving unprecedented political repression, rape of electoral democracy and denial of press freedom, are to be conveniently ignored or rationalised. Much, of course, would depend on the criteria to be established for a National Heroes Project.
In a recent conversation with the lawyer Ashton Chase, author of `A History of Trade Unionism in Guyana', a protege of Critchlow and who, like Janet Jagan and Kwayana, is a surviving former leading figure of the early years of the PPP, remarked:
"Perhaps when we move out of our present internecine warfare we will begin to think of more liberal and appropriate ideas such as establishing our National Heroes..."
Critchlow, the poor dock worker who founded the first trade union in colonial British Guiana, the Guyana Labour Union, back 81 years ago this month, was elevated to the stature of a National Hero during the controversial third term of the PPP in the decade of the 60s with the creation of the first ever life-size statue to be erected to a Guyanese.hough, unlike Cuffy, his National Hero status is not legal, Critchlow, whose statute stands in front of Parliament Building in Georgetown, is widely perceived as a hero of the working class, not only in Guyana, but throughout the Caribbean and beyond.
Poet Carter
Of that fine human being, the poet Martin Carter, whose funeral took place amid post-1997 election disturbances in Georgetown, Sydney King (now Eusi Kwayana) in a foreword to Carter's first published volume of `Poems of Resistance' in 1954, the year after the British deposed the Jagan-led first PPP government, wrote:
"The imperialists know quite well the influence of artists. That is why Martin Carter was put in detention camp with a strange hedge of barbed wire and a gate of bayonets. That is why his `Poems of Resistance' were banned in Guiana..."More recently, in the very valuable revised edition of `Martin Carter - Selected Poems', published by `Red Thread Women's Press' in 1997 and dedicated "to the memory of Dr Cheddi Jagan and the spirit of Guyana's Independence Movement", the West Indian writer, Ian McDonald, notes in the foreword:
"It is time - past time - for Caribbean people and a wider international audience to have easier access to the poems of a man whose stature as a great Caribbean, Third World, and indeed universal writer, becomes more firmly established as each year passes".
Lamming on Jagan
And of Cheddi Jagan, the other of my initial trio of choices as National Heroes, hopefully within the first decade of the 21st century, the noted Caribbean novelist, George Lamming, in a tribute on the death of the first freely elected President of Guyana, had this to say:"The name Cheddi Jagan has acquired, for more than one generation, the feel of permanence and awe which time confers on certain historical monuments, and there was something monumental in the consistence of purpose and the unique kind of dedication which he brought to the public life of the people of Guyana."
Lamming, who had delivered the eulogy at the funeral of the murdered Walter Rodney in 1980 at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Georgetown, thinks that "there is no Caribbean leader who has been so frequently cheated of office, none who has been so grossly misrepresented and no one who, in spite of such adversity, was his equal in certainty of purpose and the capacity to go on and on until his time had come to take his leave from us..."
The question now is when will Guyana begin the process of officially identifying its National Heroes
