Dear Editor,
The congress of the ruling PPP should have moved to delete from the party constitution the ideology of Marxism/Leninism. Marxism/ Leninism has failed in all the countries in which it was practised for over fifty years. There is no more need for experiment.
Throughout his political career, Cheddi Jagan championed Marxism/Leninism as his ideology and his model for development in Guyana and Third World countries. However, Cheddi lived to see Marxism/Leninism collapse in all so-called advanced socialist states, including the number one socialist country and the first, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, now Russia.
Capitalism is the way forward. The world is moving to a free economy with private investment. More countries are forming free trade associations. The World Trade Organisation is moving the world economy torwards free trade.
Guyana does not practise Marxism/Lenism since it is under the International Monetary Fund Structural Adjustment programme, getting funding from the World Bank and promoting foreign investment.
I understand that the party wants Marxism/Leninist to continue as its ideology out of respect for the late Cheddi Jagan. Rejecting Marxism/Leninism and dropping it as an ideology will be seen as an insult to Cheddi Jagan, the former founder, Premier, President and leader of the party all his life. But now times have changed and Cheddi is no longer. So Marxism/Leninism must go.
Yours faithfully,
Baldeo Persaud
No one in the party has the audacity to suggest that the party stop using marxism/leninism or don’t address each other as comrade. Khemraj Ramjattan was kicked out of the party for wanting this.
kHEMRAJ PAIDTHE PRICE……..MAO…OF CHINA DIED AND THINGS CHANGED OVER THERE NOT 100 PER CENT BUT THERE IS CHANGE. KEEP CHEDDIE ALIVE WITH MARXISM ……….THEREFORE……….. THE PPP PEDALS BACKWARDS.
Baldeo, “Capitalism is the way forward,” you say. But no intellectual has beaten Karl Marx in analyzing the capitalist system which is not all hunky-dory as you suggest. Even in the heart of capitalism, American universities are offering courses on Marxism. Capitalism is not eternal. It will one day be superseded by a more just and humane socio-economic order. Will you quarrel with a Christian who sincerely believes that Jesus Christ will return to earth one fine day, Baldeo? Why quarrel with people who struggle for the return of socialism?
Baldeo Persaud I’m with you 100% so join the long line of frustrated Guyanese, we’ve all been waiting for Guyana to get off the road less traveled.
I tend to agree with asuman. Baldeo needs to notice that the ’strongly market-led economies tend to deliver greater inequality’ as opposed to those with better ’social policies’ like the Scandinavian nations. Before we even consider what political system a good basic education is required!
“Capitalism is the way forward” I would like a never ending echo of this. I wish more Guyanese will keep the echo up in the ears of the Guyanese politicians……. until they see the light.
Baldeo’s comment that the PPP should remove “Marxism-Leninism” from its constitution will make no fundamental difference to the current state of affairs in the country. We who live, here, in Guyana, are experiencing some of the worst form of maladministration this country has ever seen. Mr. Baldeo, like many others in Guyana and suporters of the PPP, do not understand what this terminology Marxism-Leninism means. It is another name for STALINISM – a terminology created by the “great” murderer of the former Soviet Union – Joseph Stalin.
Neither Cheddi Jagan nor his wife Janet Jagan understood what true concept of Marxism or scientific socialism or else they would not have slavishly followed the dictates of the former Soviet Union. They supported the oppression of millions of Soviet citizens who opposed the direction of Stalin and subsequent leaders of the Soviet empire. They betrayed true socialism and created a model which the PPP and other Communist Parties all over the world were forces to adopt or else they would not have received the millions of roubles (Russian money).
Today, Jagdeo is practicing uncontrolled capitalism in Guyana – there are no restrictions against the daily exploitation of our people by the state and private employers – the same class of people the PPP says that it represents.
You only have to look at today’s Kaiteur News newspaper (9.08.08) to see the level of fraud and corruption committed by this PPP-led administration. What a shame and a disgrace. They have brought us to the lowest level civilisation in the history of our country.
The true is – Baldeo- unfortunately, we have never experienced true socialism in Guyana – it was all talk and no practice by Jagan and Burnham.
Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), uttered these prescient words regarding the intrinsic qualities of Marxist communism: ‘Communism will always be totalitarian and violent, wherever it is practiced. There was nothing special in the Russian conditions which affected the outcome.’
Heigh Guys: There is no one practising either pure Capitalism or pure Marxism/Leninism. I do recall that Dr.Jagan said that he will use the best of both theories in the pursuit of what is best for Guyana. But both of them are only good when people behave like morons and do what a few dictates. When and where will this happen? Both systems are good and bad at the same time. Contradiction? NO? Practical? Yes. All systems and procedures are at the mercy of those who are mandated to follow set guidelines. Who does? Prove Lincoln wrong, ‘All the people all the time’ and we will obtain true M/L or C. And what of a Dictatorship? Even then the Dictator is not 100% dictatorial. Common sense and live and let live can work.But we are not all morons. Comment, experts.
Best of regards to all.