Outrage continues to grow…Janet Jagan’s confidante slams Jagdeo’s mansion statements

Mar 20, 2015 News

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Former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s attempts to justify his multi-million-dollar mansion in Pradoville 2, by comparing it to the home of Dr. Cheddi Jagan, is fast spiraling out of control and proving a public relations nightmare for the ruling party.

Joining the list of critics condemning Jagdeo is Sadie Amin, a former personal assistant and close confidante of Janet Jagan- who with her husband, Dr. Jagan, were both former Presidents.
Amin, in a letter to the editor published in Kaieteur News yesterday, wrote that the couple was legendary when it came to their frugality.
She had a simple message to Jagdeo:  “Former President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, should stick to the old adage: If you don’t have anything good to say – SHUT UP!”
During an unusual press conference last week to defend his statements at Babu Jaan, Berbice, during a forum to honour Dr. Jagan, Jagdeo when asked to justify his mansion said that Government Ministers do not have to live in logies to prove that they are honest. He said that Dr. Jagan lived in the upscale Bel Air area, but there were no questions about whether he was corrupt.  He said that Jagan’s abode was not typical of all Guyanese and insisted that the area was a prime one.
Immediately, the comments sparked condemnation from former Executive Member of the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Ralph Ramkarran, and later on, the Jagans’ daughter, Nadira Jagan-Brancier.
Amin, a lawyer, who said she worked by Mrs. Jagan for 10 years, said that whether the comments of Jagdeo were well intended as justification for the new dispensation of lifestyles for some of the ruling class, he should not

have invoked Dr. Jagan’s way of life.
“To compare Dr. Jagan’s simple life and his home in Bel Air to what obtains today is absurd. Dr. Jagan and Mrs. Janet Jagan were way above reproach when it comes to modesty in both public and private life.”
She said that there is no need to reiterate what Senior Counsel Ramkarran and Mrs. Jagan-Brancier said.
Highlighting one story how the Jagans lived by example and frugality, Amin recalled one “funny story” about Cheddi’s legendary frugality. “Apparently the roof of the house leaked and Janet would use the pots and pans to catch the drips. It was only when she ran out of drip pans that Cheddi reluctantly agreed to have the roof fixed.”
Amin said that she worked with Mrs. Jagan for almost 10 years and never once could the label “fancy lifestyle” apply.
“As president, Mrs. Jagan chose to live at Bel Air instead of State House. The presidential guards complained that their assigned space was inadequate. She loathed the use of outriders and sirens when she travelled. Mrs. Jagan was a security nightmare for those responsible for that assignment. She frequently made unscheduled stops to go to the market, visit a sick person, etc.”
Amin said that she and Mrs. Jagan took a few overseas vacations. “We always stayed at moderately priced

hotels with kitchenette-styled facilities. No Marriott for us and all expenses were split equally. Mrs Jagan’s only extravagance was the purchase of local art. It got to the point where “starving artists” would leave their pieces at the Office of the President (OP) for her to buy. Desmond Alli was one such artist.”
Amin recalled that when Mrs. Jagan resigned from the Presidency, she did not want to inconvenience the staff of OP as it was a Sunday. Rather she did the announcement from the enclosed stairwell of her house. “I remember scrambling to organise the small space to hold the podium, national flag and other equipment. Such was her modesty.”
The former personal assistant argued that one can criticise the former Presidents for their political views and their tenures “but when it came to humility, simplicity and integrity with the public purse, only the unconscionable among us can cast even a pebble. Mr. Jagdeo, your comparison is chalk to cheese.”
Earlier this week, Jagan-Brancier in a letter to the editor was also highly critical describing Jagdeo’s lifestyle as “opulent”.
The letter would continue to signal a growing divide between the current leaders of the People’s Progressive Party and the relatives of Dr. Jagan who found the party.
Jagan-Brancier did not even refer to Jagdeo as the former President. “I am extremely disappointed that Bharrat Jagdeo would try to compare his lifestyle to that of my parents, former Presidents Dr. Cheddi Jagan

and Mrs. Janet Jagan, and defend his opulent lifestyle by pathetically claiming that my parents also lived in a large house in an affluent community. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
“They did not lead an extravagant life. Even when they were both Presidents of Guyana they maintained the same simple lifestyle they had always lived before.”
She said that it was sad that no one, especially in the PPP leadership, has come forward to challenge the “false and misleading claims” that “Bharrat Jagdeo” has made against her parents, except for an “old and dear comrade and friend of my parents”– Ramkarran.
Ramkarran, who has his home next to the Jagans’ in Bel Air wrote, in another article, that in the 1960s, Plantation Bel Air, as it was then known, was a poor community of mainly small artisans, farm and city labourers and subsistence cattle and vegetable farmers.
Ramkarran said that Jagan’s land, next door to where he was born, grew up and still live, was acquired for $2,000 in the early 1960s.
It was not the first time that Jagan’s daughter or his family and other long time loyalists of PPP have come out criticizing the PPP for straying away from the ideology of its founder.
It was only recently that Jagan-Brancier’s brother, Joey, reportedly said that while he mounted the PPP platform for the 2011 General and Regional Elections; he will not be doing so this time around.
PPP has remained silent on Jagdeo’s outburst.
There have been severe criticisms over the lifestyle and attitude of officials of the ruling party, as well as accusations of corruption and excesses, but the administration has refused to take action.

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