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
