Dear Editor,

I agree with the many letter writers that Mrs Jagan was indeed a great blessing to Guyana.  Can we think about what might have happened in the US if Mrs Jagan’s ideas had gained currency amongst a larger section of the American society?  Maybe America would not have been as rich at it presently is, but the first African-American president and the first female president might have been elected a long time ago.  But instead, politically speaking, people like Mrs Jagan with their socialist and communist ideas still occupy the lowest rungs of American society.

Of course, Mrs Jagan wasn’t schooled in socialism in Guyana.  On her arrival in Guyana with Cheddi, she already had a political agenda, which I am sure was further refined  and developed during the many years that she lived with and unselfishly served the Guyanese people.  Janet and Cheddi immediately went about the business of starting a movement, and while the PPP secured a landslide victory in 1953, they had really only struggled for a few years before enjoying such massive success at the polls.  Had Mrs Jagan remained in the United States for that many years, she would either have capitulated to capitalism, or become severely disillusioned had she chosen to stay in the socialist trenches. On the other hand, even during the many years that Mrs Jagan and Cheddi spent in the political opposition, Mrs Jagan continued to be honoured and revered by large numbers of Guyanese people.

Also, the fact that Mrs Jagan was a woman didn’t stand in the way of her achieving political prominence in Guyana.  In 1947, when she took up residence in Guyana, married white women in the US were still largely at home, even when educated and holding degrees from Ivy League schools.  Women’s liberation in the US didn’t really get going until the 1960s, by which time Janet Jagan had already been a cabinet minister on two occasions. The twenty-eight years that the PPP spent in the political wilderness, were probably the most difficult years for Janet Jagan, but to some degree, she still enjoyed political prominence by writing and editing for the two PPP publications. And, of course, for obvious reasons Burnham always had to pay attention to the PPP and members like Janet Jagan.

Editor, some time in the 1990s I heard Mrs Jagan speak in Parliament (it was before she became president) and, to put it mildly, she was awesome in terms of both energy and analysis. Well into her eighties, Janet continued to enjoy a position of influence in Guyana up to the time of her death.  She saw the opportunity in Guyana and stepped right in, and she was largely accepted by the Guyanese people.

Editor, what a woman she was and what an impeccable and almost flawless career she enjoyed. What an example she has set for other women in Guyana.  There will never be another Janet Jagan.

Yours faithfully,
Rudy Vyfhuis