Dear Editor,
This ruling PPP/C regime is not the PPP that Dr Cheddi Jagan founded on January 1, 1950; it is the total opposite. Dr Jagan’s PPP was a party of the poor and working class; the present day PPP/C is a party of the wealthy and well-connected elite.
When Dr Jagan returned to British Guiana in 1943, after studying in the US, he entered the political arena as an advocate of the poor, and a representative of the working man. He fought tirelessly to liberate our country from colonialism.
He championed the cause of sugar workers, farmers and down-trodden rural peoples. Even his political opponents must acknowledge that Dr Jagan fought for freedom, justice, fairness and equality; he was a man among men.
Unfortunately, after his death on March 6, 1997, and particularly after Mr Bharrat Jagdeo became president in August 1999, Dr Jagan’s PPP died; the working-class values which defined the party were buried, and the PPP/C of the wealthy elite was created.
In April 2012, at a memorial for Dr Jagan, his daughter Ms Nadira Jagan-Brancier expressed it best. Describing her parents as simple, humble people who fought for the working class, she said: “That is what they stood for, but the party has moved away.” She pointed out that her father did not have a big, ostentatious home like today’s party officials; she described her parents as modest, incorruptible people of integrity and high standards. Ms Jagan-Brancier said that these values do not exist in the PPP/C today.
It would be impossible to refute Ms Jagan-Brancier’s words; she grew up with Dr Jagan; she knew the man; his blood runs in her veins. Her assertions are easily confirmed by observed realities, including the lack of a functioning Integrity Commission and Guyana’s deplorable rating on the Corruption Perception Index. The differences between Dr Jagan’s values and the actions of today’s leaders could not be more obvious.
Editor, Dr Jagan would never have allowed the sugar industry to fall into terminal decline; he would never have permitted the squandering of billions of dollars on a non-producing factory at Skeldon. Dr Jagan would have stood up for the poor workers; he would have kept his word, he would have paid attention to the problems of hinterland residents and rural farmers.
On March 14, 2014, rural rice farmers in Essequibo protested the low price and lack of markets for paddy, and pleaded for government’s attention. In response, the chairman of the Guyana Rice Development Board, Mr Jagnarine Singh, said that it was not the board’s responsibility to find markets for rice. Would Cheddi Jagan have condoned such a response?
Would Dr Jagan have ignored the plight of poor patients without access to medication at Guyana’s hospitals? According to reports, the Berbice Regional Health Authority often has to borrow money from the Region 6 Administration to purchase drugs when the Ministry of Health does not deliver supplies.
The situation in Region 2 is no different; the Suddie Public Hospital and Charity Oscar Joseph Hospital are also plagued with shortages.
At the Lethem Hospital in Region 10, the situation got so bad that the Nurse in Charge, Emona Hamid, reported that she often has to beg the nearby Brazilians for basic medication to treat patients. Would Cheddi Jagan have allowed this to happen? Would the father of the PPP have turned a blind eye to primary school children fetching water to flush toilets at their school in Moruka, or children carrying firewood from the Paramakatoi hills to their school in Kato, to cook meals?
We recall that in May, 2013, the women of Yarrowkabra were told to vacate land on which they were burning coal. These women were making ends meet by producing and selling coal from wood given to them by Bulkan Timber Works. And they were told to move off the land, so that BK International could set up a big sand mine. Would Dr Jagan have done this; would he have evicted poor, working people from land, and given it to a wealthy company?
It is clear, the present rulers with their rich friends, Pradoville mansions and chartered jets, are nothing like the modest, humble man who spoke for the workers; the rich rulers of today are not worthy to speak Dr Jagan’s name. Today’s PPP/C may hold onto the PPP name, but it is not the same.
Therefore, Guyanese, like yours truly, who admired Dr Jagan’s values and integrity, are under no obligation to support this new regime that has none of his values.
The current crop of elite rulers do not care about poor people; they have no interest in rural farmers or hinterland residents.
Therefore, Guyanese who admired Cheddi Jagan must reject the attempts of this regime to use Dr Jagan’s name to further their own personal agendas.
This PPP/C may hold onto the name but the present leaders have turned their backs on poor people, unemployed Guyanese, farmers and workers. They have scattered the ashes of Dr Jagan’s dream of a united Guyana; they do not represent Cheddi Jagan’s vision and they do not deserve our support.
Yours faithfully,
Mark DaCosta
