Janet Jagan is owed an apology, even in death – Rohee

Apr 01, 2009 News

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During an emotional eulogy at yesterday’s state funeral for former President of Guyana Janet Jagan, Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee broke down in tears and he called for an apology to the late president from those guilty of heinous acts perpetrated against her between 1997 and 1998 in the wake of the December 1997 polls.
The state funeral, which was held at Public Buildings, was well attended by individuals from every stratum of the social sphere, from diplomats to the ordinary man in the street who came out to pay respects to the fallen ‘freedom fighter’.
According to Rohee, with the advent of the 1997 elections, Mrs Jagan became the Presidential Candidate of the PPP/C and won the elections, receiving a larger percentage of the votes than in the elections of 1992.
“But it was to be one of the most painful periods in her political life, and that of the Party…If the 1950s and 1960s had their difficulties for her and the PPP, the 1997 to 1999 period was even more testing.”
He added that it was during that period that the vilest and wickedest forms of protest, including public recourse to obeah, political manoeuvers and subterfuge, were used to dislodge her from office, eventuating in the reduction of her term by two years.
“This undoubtedly contributed to her illness…But she bore the indignity with dignity, the insult with courage, and the gamut of indecency with resilience…Such was the nature of the woman.”
Rohee said that for a woman who struggled all of her life for the advancement of our country, its people and for future generations to have been treated in that manner, the only decent thing for those who are guilty of these acts to do would be for them to offer her, even in death, an apology in their quiet moments for what they did to her while she was alive.
Rohee traced the life of Mrs Jagan who was born in the USA and who was no doubt inspired by the words in the Declaration of Independence of that country, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”.
According to Rohee, the late Mrs Jagan’s life was motivated by a strong, caring concern for people and the driving passion of her politics was the pursuit of their rights, particularly those of the poorer marginalised classes.
Retracing Mrs Jagan’s political career, Rohee told the large gathering at the Public Buildings that some two years after her arrival in Guyana, Mrs Jagan and her husband were already in the maelstrom of political debate and controversy.
He added that the two eventually became household names as the proponents for change that would lead to the betterment of the oppressed and downtrodden.
He said that Mrs Jagan made a name for herself in the early days (1945) through her advocacy for birth control and family planning, given that she saw for herself how large unplanned families were an albatross around the necks of the poor of the logie lines.
Rohee recalled that by 1946, she was one of the founder Members of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) and the PAC Bulletin and later in that same year, she was the principal architect behind the formation of the Women’s Political and Economic Organization (WPEO).
He added that she was Field Secretary of the British Guiana Clerks’ Association, Secretary of the Union of Moulders and Mechanics, and a principal national figure in the Enmore Sugar Workers’ strike and the bauxite strike in the 1940s.
“She succeeded in securing an increase in wages for town council watchmen and successfully defended the cause of town constables…
“She fought for the right of quarry workers to have meetings with their Union representatives at Quarries…She was in the forefront of the struggle for better conditions for domestics, and played a key role in organising successful May Day Parades displaying the tremendous unity and solidarity of all Trade Unions in British Guiana.”
In 1950, the People’s Progressive Party was formally launched with Mrs Jagan, as General Secretary, and at the first Congress of the newly founded Party she addressed the gathering, “The aim of our Party is firstly to win for our country complete and absolute independence; secondly, to externally unite our country with people of other colonial and semi-colonial territories in a common struggle.”
According to Rohee, Mrs Jagan stood as the Party’s candidate for the Municipal Elections held in 1950, which she won and became the first representative of the working class to enter the Georgetown Municipal Council where she served for a number of years.
In the 1953 General Elections, Janet Jagan contested and won the Essequibo and West Demerara Constituency, thus contributing to the victory of the PPP, which won 18 of the 24 seats.
“She brought to the elections campaign a bustling energy that was matched by an easy grace of persuasive eloquence…Following the 1953 elections she became the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.”
This was short lived as the party stayed in office for only 133 days before the Constitution was suspended and the movement of Mrs Jagan and other prominent leaders of the PPP was restricted to Georgetown.
Mrs Jagan was imprisoned for six months in 1954 and was released on January 18, 1955.
“Where lesser spirits would have been broken, this lady of substance, Janet, showed remarkable resilience and courage that would inspire and embolden Party colleagues nation-wide.”
He added that when the split took place in the Party in 1955, Janet Jagan was at the eye of the storm and she stood her ground with other Party stalwarts against those who for opportunistic and personal reasons sought to capture the leadership of the PPP.
Outside of politics Rohee pointed out that Mrs Jagan displayed an involvement in the Arts and Literature which spoke of the well-roundness of her personality, and which, later, was to lead to her authorship of stories for Guyanese children, and the acquisition of Castellani House as the home of Guyanese painting and sculpture.

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