Sin for Jagdeo to use Cheddi’s name to justify ‘Cadillac’ lifestyle – Ramkarran

Ex President Bharrat Jagdeo’s use of Cheddi Jagan’s name to defend his ‘Cadillac’ lifestyle has been blasted by former PPP insider Ralph Ramkarran.

Writing in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, Ramkarran said that it was a “sin” for Jagdeo to use the name of the late President Jagan to “justify his mansion, his pension and his Cadillac lifestyle”.

Ramkarran noted that Jagdeo on Tuesday used a press conference “to defend his Cadillac style living in an opulent mansion by the sea by pathetically invoking what he alleges was Cheddi Jagan’s mansion in Bel Air.” Jagdeo had erroneously referred to the Jagan residence as being in Bel Air Park. It is located in Bel Air Village.

Ramkarran, who was a member of the PPP for nearly 50 years before resigning two years ago, said that in the 1960s, Plantation Bel Air, as it was then known was a poor community of mainly small artisans, farm and city labourers and subsistence cattle and vegetable farmers. Ramkarran said that Jagan’s land, next door to where he (Ramkarran) was born, grew up and still lives, was acquired for $2,000 in the early 1960s. Ramkarran said that the house that Jagan constructed comprised of only an upper flat of three bedrooms, a tiny study, a small living room and kitchen.

“The impression given by Dr. Jagdeo that Cheddi Jagan built a mansion, at the time comparable to his own, in an existing exclusive area is completely false and disingenuous”, Ramkarran said.

Bharrat Jagdeo
Bharrat Jagdeo

He added that the PPP’s allowing Jagdeo’s false claims against its revered leader to go unchallenged is a “manifestation of his overweening dominance of the PPP’s agenda and narrative and its destructive character. But is anyone surprised?” Ramkarran said that when Jagdeo publicly attacked former President Janet Jagan over a statement she had made calling for an end to the withdrawal of state advertisements from Stabroek News in 2006 no one came to her defence. Ramkarran said that when he returned from overseas, where he was at the time, Mrs Jagan refused to give him permission to respond.

Ramkarran added that had Mrs. Jagan been alive, she would have forbidden him from writing as he was now doing on aspects of her and her husband’s personal lives that she would have wanted to remain private. But, he said, its disclosure is in the interest of the PPP that Cheddi Jagan left behind in 1997.

“Throughout the 1970s Dr. and Mrs Jagan were often seen at modest restaurants around Georgetown on Saturday evenings. Dining out was one of their few pleasures. This, as well as Mrs Jagan’s visits to the hairdresser, stopped during the 1980s because they could no longer afford it. When Dr. Jagan was diagnosed with a heart ailment, local facilities were then inadequate and he needed to seek medical attention overseas. He was awaiting a foreign trip that had already been planned so as to avoid the State having to pay for two trips. Unfortunately, his heart unexpectedly gave way before he could travel. But imagine Dr. Jagan electing to go on a private jet trip, even on a free ride, for any reason, including medical attention! It is a sin for Bharrat Jagdeo to use the example of Cheddi Jagan to justify his mansion, his pension and his Cadillac lifestyle”, Ramkarran asserted.

Jagdeo, a former two-term President said at his press conference on Tuesday: “I don’t believe ministers should have to live in a logie to prove that they are not corrupt… Cheddi Jagan didn’t have to prove that by living in a logie”.

This was his reply when asked if he believed that his posh home at Sparendaam and the rapid accumulation of wealth by ministers would be within the late president’s ideals.

He added “I don’t think Cheddi Jagan, living in Bel Air Park at that time, in a nice house, was typical of Guyana. But Cheddi Jagan lived at that time there. Did that weaken his commitment to the cause? No.

At that time that was a prime area. It was a big piece of land, nice house and it still is a nice house,” he said.

“Did that weaken his commitment to the cause? Did that make him corrupt or anything of the sort? What is the point they are making?

“My thing is when I built my first house, they said it was too big. Then, secondly, that I sold it for a lot of money, which is not so much now—because I know you have other people selling their houses for two and three times more than I sold mine,” he added.

He said too that Jagan would also not want them having meagre means of transportation. “Cheddi Jagan wanted us to ride motorcycles all our lives?” the former president questioned.

According to Jagdeo, he has been bombarded by questions and has received criticisms about where he acquired money from for his home and posh lifestyle. He said if those are the only criticisms to his 20 odd years of serving in public office, he could not be bothered. “If, in 20 odd years, the worst thing that they can say about me is that I have a big house and I earn a lot of money abroad, then I am good… everything that I do, I am transparent about it. We would like to see everybody progress. Everybody,” he said.

Critics have asked Jagdeo to justify his holdings based on the presidential salary and benefits he received over 12 years.