CHEDDI JAGAN WAS NO RACIST!

Mar 15, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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A few years ago, declassified documents published under the review of U.S. Foreign Relations confirmed that regionalism was simply a pawn for Forbes Burnham to consolidate his grip on power in Guyana.
These documents went further. They explained that there was a plot by Burnham to create a union with St. Vincent which would allow Burnham to offset the racial imbalance in Guyana that militated against him winning the 1968 elections.
However, long before that, in fact on September 11, 1967, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) declassified a Special National Intelligence Estimate, 89.2-67, in which the following was noted:
“Burnham, whose coalition with the small, conservative United Force (UF) has always been fragile, is working on various schemes to enlarge the Negro vote. He will try to obtain a substantial number of absentee votes from Negro Guyanese residing abroad. Beyond this, he is exploring means to merge Guyana with one or another Caribbean island (most likely St. Vincent) so as to increase the proportion of Negro voters.”
This was virtually confirmed during a visit to Guyana by a former Prime Minister of St Vincent, it was mentioned that Guyana had attempted in those years, under Burnham, to forge a union with St. Vincent.
What these revelations unearth was the use by Burnham of the race card so that he could be assured of winning an election in Guyana against the PPP which was heavily supported by the East Indian community. Burnham never succeeded in forging such a union and instead had to revert to rigging election after election in order to retain political power.
But in exposing his hand, he also revealed his lack of sincerity to his regional counterparts who, over time, became highly suspicious of Burnham’s own intentions, seeing him as using the regional integration movement for his own benefit and being fearful of a perceived ambition on his part to become Prime Minister of a united CARICOM.
As more and more documents are declassified, Burnham’s record and motivations as regards regional integration are likely to face testing scrutiny. In this context, it is highly ironic that revisionists have sought to instead cast the glare on Cheddi Jagan, accusing him of not supporting Federation because of ethnic considerations.
Cheddi Jagan, himself, had been soundly criticized by elements of the middle-class East Indian community for having supported regional integration even before he had become Premier. He was accused of selling out the interests of East Indians by the support he had given to regional integration, long before he became Premier.
The PPP’s position on Federation has always been consistent. Jagan supported regional integration even before the PPP was established. His position, however, has always been conditioned by his Marxist outlook. He saw regional integration within the context of creating a socialist and independent Caribbean.
Jagan viewed regional integration in an ideological context rather than on ethnic grounds.
The PPP, which he headed, was wary of the possibility of the West seeking to stem the influence of Cuba, by creating an amalgamated Caribbean Union which would amount to nothing more than an enlarged colony.
Since the days of the Political Affairs Committee, Jagan had argued for a Federation with dominion status and self-government, instead of a union with a crown colony government.
He would later argue for regional integration to be tied to independence. Cheddi saw the pitfalls that would emerge from Federation without either dominion status or independence. Federation would amount to nothing more than a commonwealth of colonial states in the Caribbean, tied to the interests of Britain, which would use the movement to deny rather than promote political independence
Burnham on the other hand, as negotiations for Guyana’s Independence got underway, called for independence only within federation. In effect, he was interested in Guyana being granted independence only under Federation.
His objectives were obvious. He did not wish for Jagan to have the honour of negotiating for Independence, since this would erode any chance he may have had of gaining power.
It was not Cheddi’s refusal to be part of the flawed Federation which caused it to collapse. In fact, Cheddi was vindicated by that collapse, since the movement ended up being nothing more than a façade of integration.
By the time Jamaica washed its hands of the experiment, the Federation was long dead.
One of the region’s foremost advocates for Federation was CLR James. He saw Federation as a vehicle for achieving political independence for the Caribbean. Jagan saw Federation as only being viable either with dominion status or independence.
But James, who was critical of the stance that Jagan took in relation to Federation, never accused him of embracing an ethnic position. This is what he had to say about Jagan:
“…Dr Jagan is no petty racialist, not at all. I am unalterably opposed to the political philosophy which he accepts. I am unalterably opposed to its methods. I have told him so in person. And therefore there is no reason why I should not say so in public. He has not hidden his views; there is no reason for me to hide mine.
“But in regard to his aims for British Guiana, and for the West Indies as a whole, they are those of an enlightened modern person. He is not counting up how many Indians, and how many Africans and how many acres of land, and basing the future of British Guiana on that. Some of his supporters might be doing that, but his general view is not that at all.”
There is therefore not one grain of truth in the speculation that Jagan was opposed to Federation, because it would marginalize East Indians on whose support he depended. The uninformed revisionists who are making this claim have axes to grind.

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