Reepu Daman Persaud - an iconic commodity

Reepu Daman Persaud – an iconic commodity

Apr 10, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
It appears as though we are in the season of the Great Reaper”. Last week it was Gentleman, Reverend Dr Dale Bisnauth. Today it is “The Great Soul, Reepu Daman Persaud, OR”.
As a measure of the man his name was a household iconic commodity across Guyana and in the Diaspora.
I first encountered Reep at a yagna at the Hindu Temple some time in 1973, at Joanna, Black Bush Polder where I was teaching at the time.
I remember asking a question of Reep at the yagna as to explain the concept of “reincarnation” and his accounting for the increasing larger numbers of human souls on the planet from the time of the writing of the great books on Hinduism.
He asked for time to research the issue and then to get back to me. He was always among the people.
From the plantation of Diamond, on East Bank Demerara to the Hallowed Halls of Parliament is a tremendous upward mobility. Reep walked that walk in the footsteps of his leader, Cheddi Jagan, from Plantation Port Mourant.
That climb by itself took fortitude, guts and determination but to upturn the old established order in the Hindu superstructure of the Guyana Hindu Maha Sabha which enjoyed all the intriguing support of L.F.S. Burnham at the time makes Pandit Reep’s achievement even more noteworthy. The Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha stands testimony to that lifework of achievement by Reep.
After I resigned and walked away from the PPP in 1996, Reep was the only senior Party and State functionary who sought an interview with me in his office where he told his Caucasian Secretary that anytime this Gentleman (me, the writer) came to his office he must not be made to wait but must be granted an audience with him, the Minister, immediately.
After my walk out from a District Conference of the Georgetown District of the PPP in 1996 not even Prakash Ramjattan, Moses Nagamootoo nor Roger Luncheon made any such attempt, even though so instructed by Janet Jagan to “You better go and bring him back”.
During that discussion, Pandit Reep attempted to get me to return to Freedom House and resume my assignments. He asked me what I wanted. “You want 3000 acres of land? I will sign and give it to you now but I want you back at your desk at Freedom House!”
I replied that all I wanted was to be appointed to the position I had applied for and that was as Secretary to the Drainage and Irrigation Board. He replied that he was aware of my application and suitability for the job but that Cheddi did not want to pay the salary commensurate with the position through grant funding.
Reep rose to high office in the Government of Guyana. As a Vice President and was awarded the high distinction of an Order of Excellence, OR. However Reep was denied the position of Prime Minister to succeed Sam Hinds who had become, through constitutional provision, Head of State on the death of Cheddi Jagan,
The intrigue of Janet Jagan was to upset the applecart of the PPP and it has, as we all now know, to the present distress of the PPP. Reep was an authority on the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
Reep is now gone and I would hope that he has left some record as to the truth of the intrigue of those days of Party and State succession. History and future generations of Guyanese will demand nothing less!
Rest in Peace my dear friend! It is a path we must all walk in single file!
Lionel Peters

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Reepu Daman Persaud – an iconic commodity

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