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May 06, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
As I stepped into Freedom House my words to the official there was, “she whom I seek is not here” and then the tears began to flow. I make mention of Mrs. Janet Jagan my friend, my mentor and a great Icon.
Even as I pen this letter, the tears still flow because I know I have lost a good friend and Guyana is all the poorer at her loss.
There is so much to be spoken of this great lady that it will fill volumes, but I shall only curtail my discourse to a few.
There are two Caribbean leaders who will remain engraved in my mind and these are Sir John Compton and Dr Cheddi Jagan and by extension his wife Mrs. Janet Jagan.
Their lifelong energies was centered on the development of their nations’ peoples, all the people, which make them stand out towering above the rest of the lot of that era.
I was privileged to have met Mrs. Jagan when she became Guyana’s President in 1997(a photograph of myself and this good lady is in their family home) and ever since that time I would write letters to her and hold discussions with her sharing my thoughts on many developmental matters for my country, in fact, there was a scheduled meeting for the very same week that she died but as fate would have it she has passed to the great beyond.
Mrs. Jagan’s work as a tireless worker for people’s rights and for them to earn the dignity of a human being started when she became the Minister of Home Affairs. She instituted labour laws which stopped the exploitation of domestic workers and ensured that they got a fair day’s pay.
Under her watch the housing schemes that are in East La Penitence and West Ruimveldt were built. During her short stint as President Sophia and other squatting areas were transformed into thriving settlements thanks to a kind caring Lady.
Some of her detractors would like us to forget these achievements but they are there etched on the landscape for all to see.
Mark well the travails of the Sophia squatters, who were raided off the land like animals by Desmond Hoyte, using police dogs. She came and changed all of this. On behalf of Guyana I say thanks Mrs. Jagan. So when those in the opposition try to demonise her, they must first judge her by her works which has that touch of excellence which no one can take away from her.
I was reliably informed that the PNC and their acolytes TV stations gave hours of broadcast coverage of the tossing of the court order by Mrs. Jagan at a time when they should have been showing her achievements.
Let me first express my handling of this matter and I make no bones about it, I would have bundled the order together then played a little game of football. I say Mrs. Jagan was very modest about it.
I would not have been. You see Justice Desiree Bernard was very ignorant of the law and very much out of place, Mrs. Jagan did not make herself President of Guyana, she was elected by the people and at that stage of the proceedings she was asked to form the next government which was her legitimate right, not a privilege.
Justice Bernard should have served the Elections Commission with that order if there was cause for doubt in the process leading up to the declaration of a winner, not to stop the swearing in ceremony.
Yet in all of this Mrs. Jagan was humble enough to have signed the order making then Chief Justice Desiree Bernard Chancellor of the Judiciary, she did this without any reservation or ill-will towards the judge, such was the greatness of this noble lady.
The tears still flow for my friend and mentor but life will go on.
Neil Adams

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