Political defections in Guyana have a long and ignoble history. A rare exception was that of Henry Jeffrey towards the PPP, although he never joined that party. Faced with the choice between academic integrity and dishonesty in the mid-1980s when he was writing a book, Guyana, while preparing his doctoral thesis in the UK, he chose the high road. He sat on the executive of the PNC but instead of defending electoral malpractice, he took the position that the PNC had been guilty of electoral fraud. He was dismissed from his job as principal at Kuru Kuru Cooperative College and for several years after his return to Guyana he could not find employment at UG.
Although tied to the PNC during the 1970s and 1980s, he had always exercised an independent political mind. He regularly visited the Michael Forde Bookshop, then something of a mini, pro PPP, intellectual hang-out, now a shadow of its former self, and engaged in polemics while many feared even travelling through that part of Robb Street where Freedom House is located.
He displayed the Mirror at Kuru Kuru Cooperative College. He employed me as a part-time lecturer. During much of this time he was known to some in the PPP leadership and engaged with them from time to time. No PNC activist, sympathizer or state employee dared to do anything similar, but Dr Jeffrey’s actions were never called into question by his political superiors. Upon his return to Guyana after completing his doctoral studies, his engagements with Dr Jagan intensified and there began his journey with the PPP and later the PPP/Civic. He has criticized the PNC but has never joined in
