Latest update March 20th, 2025 5:10 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

Is this not party paramountcy?

Apr 05, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
I would like to add my voice to those who have offered condolences on the passing of Janet Jagan.
The Guardian in London has recently published an obituary that represented a whitewashing of history, a racist and patronising account that characterized the 1953 British suspension of the constitution as a necessary move to save Guyanese from themselves, who seemed by their actions not politically mature enough or ready for self-rule.

Janet Jagan was a key figure in the building of the multi-racial, anti-colonial coalition that swept to power in 1953 and that offered hope to all Guyanese.
A good friend of mine, who was present in Guyana for the funeral, sent me a moving description, but was also puzzled by the relative absence of the Guyana flag, the Golden Arrowhead, along the route, and the fact that it was the banner of the People’s Progressive Party that fluttered and that was an insistent presence throughout the day.

It is not the presence of the latter flag, but the relative absence of the former, that prompts these questions.
Since I was not there, perhaps someone else can correct this impression or clarify. For a state funeral, what is the protocol and what is the significance of the flags that mark the occasion?
Does the Golden Arrowhead not suggest that the occasion speaks to all of us (the moment best represented in Janet Jagan’s life by the activism leading up to 1953)?

Does deliberately choosing to mark a state funeral with a profusion of party flags not represent a partisan sentiment (the split in the anti-colonial struggle that would happen in the mid 1950s, that has produced the racial divide that hangs like an albatross around our necks to the current day)?
Is this not party paramountcy, which the PPP in the anti-dictatorial period opposed so strongly?
How short are our memories, how sweet the taste of power! I really do hope my friend was wrong.
Alissa Trotz

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| March, 17th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

GPF arrests Presidential Guards by 48 runs as cricket action gets underway 

GPF arrests Presidential Guards by 48 runs as cricket action gets...

Mar 20, 2025

2025 Commissioner of Police T20 Cup…  Kaieteur Sports- Guyana Police Force team arrested the Presidential Guards as they handed them a 48-run defeat when action in the 2025 Commissioner of Police...
Read More
Superbet supports One Guyana 3×3 Quest

Superbet supports One Guyana 3×3 Quest

Mar 20, 2025

FIDE Master Drayton outclasses strong competition to lift title 

FIDE Master Drayton outclasses strong competition...

Mar 20, 2025

Wiltshire, Chris dominoes tourney set for March 23

Wiltshire, Chris dominoes tourney set for March

Mar 20, 2025

Houston Sec’, New Central, Saints sent packing

Houston Sec’, New Central, Saints sent packing

Mar 20, 2025

Charles’ all-round performance helps EBDCA U23 to victory

Charles’ all-round performance helps EBDCA U23...

Mar 20, 2025

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]