Dear Editor,

The recent death of Ranji Chandisingh brought many statements from many prominent politicans and personalities in this country. Let me extend to the family of the deceased, my earnest condolences. But I would like to really express some thoughts concerning Mr Chandisingh and his superficial communist beliefs which led him to betray the very ideas which he professed to believe in.

When Mr Chandisingh left the PPP to join the PNC government, he proceeded to issue statements slander-ing President Cheddi while justifying his move by stating that the PNC was following a course to build socialism and communism in Guyana. His statement at that time, was clear as daylight, in that he accused President Cheddi of selfish and opportunistic behaviour and of holding back the spread of socialism/communism in Guyana.

After working with Jagan for many years, Mr Chandisingh knew very well, without any doubt, that Cheddi Jagan was the most committed socialist/nationalist/communist the country, and indeed, the Caribbean had ever seen (even before Castro); he knew very well that not only was President Cheddi a true Marxist, but that he was the most modest, honest, non-corruptable person in the whole of Guyana. He knew very well that Jagan gave up the most for his socialist beliefs (loss of government in the 1960s) and stood like a real man, never giving in to cowardice and the sweet smell of success; he knew very well that Jagan would stay in the wilderness even if it was for all his life in order to preserve his beliefs in Marxism and a socialist mandate; he knew quite well  that for the cause of socialism, Jagan stood out like the Sphinx of Egypt and was world-recognized as a leading Marxist.

So why would Mr Chandisingh leave Jagan and walk to the other side, knowing full well that the cradle of Marxism was firmly rocked by Cheddi Jagan and knowing full well that the PNC government of the day was just blowing the trumpet of socialism to undermine the political positions of the PPP without building the foundations of a socialist state?

Chandisingh, in fact, left the PPP and walked towards the sweet smell of success because he couldn’t stand the wilderness, and it’s as simple as that.

He couldn’t stand the pressures which President Cheddi endured for all those years so he walked; he couldn’t deal with the spirited debates within the PPP and  Cheddi’s persausive eloquence in debating the ideas  of socialism because he thought that he was the leading master of theory and found out that the real master was Jagan. I remember my father explaining to me about Chandisingh’s defection and how it hurt him, and I remember him feeling sorry for “Ranji” because as he explained, “Ranji” was divorcing socialist theory from practice and thus had gone astray in trying to literally disband the PPP in his rush to “sweet success.”

Mr Chandisingh couldn’t stand the heat in the kitchen so he walked out and never came back from the dining room where he enjoyed the sweet smell of success until Mr Hoyte became President and moved the PNC away from the quasi-communist positions it previously held, and that was the end of “Ranji” as he became a relic of the past.

So, Editor, my contention is that the accolades which came in particular from certain PPP leaders are indicative of what the sweet smell of success can do to politicians who forget President Cheddi and the trials and tribulations which the likes of Chandisingh put that great man through.

The PPP leaders who heaped praise on Ranji Chandisingh recently should be ashamed of themselves, especially since they claim to be following the principles of Jagan.

The bottom line of the sequence of events which led to and encapsulated Chandisingh’s betrayal of President Cheddi is that “Ranji” betrayed himself and his own self-professed beliefs in the end because he always knew, to his dying day, that Cheddi Jagan was a righteous man and a righteous leader.

As far as I am concerned, “Ranji” will not even become a reference of political discourse in the future of our country’s development because he really was of shallow political skills, not able to see the visionary in Cheddi Jagan, who persevered in the end.

Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr)