Dear Editor,
One has been impressed over recent weeks with the adulatory perspectives proffered of Cheddi Jagan – most substantively as a human being; but nevertheless extensively debated. Indeed the respective commentaries would appear to invite discussion as to whether his leadership demeanour has served as an exemplar for any of his professed disciples. How many would have remembered the animosity he had to endure from his own party after his perceived failure at the Lancaster House talks when the Colonial Secretary Duncan Sandys opted for proportional representation for Guyana’s elections structure? Refer to the PPP’s Mirror of the time. How many of his successors could lay claim to matching his humility, his accessibility? Would he have condoned the rancorous interpersonal relationships being played out today between Government and Opposition? How many would recall that it was Burnham who intervened to retrieve his godson, Joey Jagan, from a constrictive Canadian environment following the latter’s involvement in the fracas on the computer premises at Sir George Williams University in Canada? How many of Jagan’s disciples have stopped to contemplate whether he would have waited for the Opposition’s initiative of ‘recognition’ before confirming the lead actors of our judiciary in their positions, so that our legal institution could earn equality amongst colleague Caribbean institutions, and perhaps more critically, respect of invading foreign agencies who must feel compelled to mimic the example being set by our ‘unifying’ leaderships? Those who acclaim Cheddi Jagan must wonder who amongst his successors have been able to ‘step into his shoes’, slippered as their own feet are? It would be interesting to see how the various commentators would rank Jagan’s successors – in terms of the latter having any substantive comparable political philosophy, and the legacies in turn they would have left to be emulated. Having been exposed to all the pontifications and their counters about the worth this historic human being to this country, many would ask who else of his colleague leaders would be worthy of a comparable level of analytical discourse?
Sincerely,
Elijah Bijay
