Dear Editor,
In reference to the letter by Messrs Rose and Singh in SN (‘Raj Singh is not a management professional with a global understanding of sugar issues’), there are some who might say that “Joey” just recently supported the PPP in the last elections and now, only 8 months later, he criticizes this Ramotar government. There are others who might say that “Joey” didn’t get a position or money and that is why he is critical. I want the public to understand that when I campaigned with the PPP in 2011, I made it crystal clear that I was offering the PPP “critical support,” an invention of my father when he was in opposition to PNC rule. I was denied membership in the PPP and told that I was in the Civic component, which I found out quickly was a farce, because Prime Minister Sam Hinds never carried out the mandate given by President Cheddi. However, Mr Ramotar promised that after the elections he would convene and strengthen the Civic, although to this day he has never even tried to accomplish this. Even after I wrote him on many occasions there was not even an acknowledgement of my letters which covered many pertinent topics, such as corruption, the art of compromise and accommodation with the opposition, etc. I am willing to release all my correspondence with President Ramotar to the general public at any time.
I have never, at any time, asked the PPP for position, power or monetary largesse; I operate at a different level than those who run the PPP today, and my father always told me to look at the other side of the coin when one is making decisions in life. That is why I do not regret supporting the PPP, because there’s no Civic after Mr Hinds’ betrayal of my father’s wishes. I saw firsthand how they operate from the ground up, and how they think; I met good people in the PPP who still long for my father’s presence, but they have to pick his cudgel up and change the outlook of this great party that Jagan built and Jagdeo pulled down, with the assistance of the Robert Persauds.
Editor, the campaign which was headed by Robert Persaud was a disaster with his concentration on ‘hip gyration’ politics, wastage of money, having Mr Jagdeo act so aggressively and Mr Ramotar’s failures to keep the grass roots organization intact while doing nothing much to solve local concerns nationwide; But Mr Persaud is rewarded with a Ministry he can never run, especially when one looks at his dismal record at Agriculture. What bothers me about the PPP, however, is the absence of Jagan’s fire-in-the-belly to speak up; for instance, there is the Ralph Ramkarran situation where no one from the PPP voices an opinion of support for the idea that Mr Ramkarran, since he departed the PPP, should be made Prime Minister and given, besides Mr Hinds’ overall responsibilities in government, direct responsibility to head and organize a strong Civic component, to satisfy the express wishes of Jagan.
So, Editor, I apologize to Rose et al, for my positions in the past, but with no regrets because I follow the political principles of Mahatma Gandhi, whose words I quote: “I would like to say to the diligent reader of my writings and political positions and to others who are interested in them, that I am not at all concerned with appearing to be consistent. In my search after Truth. I have discarded many ideas and learnt many new things. Old as I am in age, I have no feeling that I have ceased to grow inwardly or that growth will stop at the dissolution of the flesh. What I am concerned with is my readiness to obey the call of Truth, my God, from moment to moment, and, therefore, when anybody finds any inconsistency between any two writings or political position of mine, if he still has faith in my sanity, he would do well to choose the latter of the two on the same subject.”
Editor, the goodness , humility and progressive nature of President Cheddi’s PPP is no longer with us, as these factors have now been supplanted by the current leaders with “unto thyself,” “an eye for an eye” and “winner takes all,” a policy dictated by former president Jagdeo and followed by Mr Ramotar. I have told President Ramotar repeatedly, from that first night when the bad news came in and instead of the 56% the PPP leadership thought they’d get, they lost 8 percentage points in their minds. I was there and told Mr Ramotar that he’d have to practise the political art of compromise and reason with the opposition, but my words fell on deaf ears and that is why President Ramotar should heed the words of the Mahatma: “Evolution of democracy is not possible if we are not prepared to hear the other side. We shut the doors of reason when we refuse to listen to our opponents or, having listened, make fun of them. If intolerance becomes a habit, we run the risk of missing the truth. Whilst with the limits that nature has put upon our understanding, we must act fearlessly according to the light vouchsafed to us, we must always keep an open mind and be ever ready to find that what we believed to be truth was, after all, untruth. This openness of mind strengthens the truth in us and removes the cross from it if there is any.”
Regardless of the character assassination of President Cheddi by the Freddie Kissoons of Guyana, Jagan still remains the Matahma of Guyana and just as the Congress Party which Gandhi built fell apart through corruption, nepotism and greed, the same will happen to the PPP as it sheds the great principles which Jagan operated under for all of his political career.
Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr)
