The historiographical niceness of Dr. Jagan must stop

Jun 12, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to a quotation from Dr. Henry Jeffrey in the June 8 issue of the Stabroek News. Jeffrey is quoted as saying, “More than most, Cheddi Jagan understood the need to unite the nation…he had both genuine and political interests in solving the problem … and formed many community groups with broad ethnic membership in the hope of winning cross ethnic support.”
I want to be brutal in my attitude to this opinion of Jeffrey’s. It is pathetic, jejune, mocking nonsense. Dr. Jeffrey pens some shockingly foolish statements that must irritate the historian and the political analyst whose research area, including a study of the PPP in power, 1992 -2015. Here is just one example of my exasperation. He wrote in the SN of January 29, 2019 the following; “I do not believe that our country is in this condition because over the last half a century our politicians have been wicked and intended this kind of backwardness.”
Readers have to see my visage to see how angry I was at that silly observation. I believe deep down in my analytical soul that the PPP’s intention to weaken UG was wicked and deliberately designed. The PPP Government, beginning with Dr. Jagan in 1992, set about to miniaturize UG. Of all the great leaders, I think Walter Rodney was the most genuine in the pursuit of ethnic reconciliation. The historiographical niceness of Dr. Jagan must stop. I now return to a direct rebuttal of Jeffrey’s description of Jagan’s ethnic innocence
President Jagan embarked on ethnic witch-hunt and racial victimization on assumption to power in 1992. It has completely wiped out his legacy as a multi-racial politician. What occurred at the Foreign Service Ministry under Jagan was the most egregious manifestation of racist rampage in any government in our country’s history
In my study, “Ethnic Power and Ideological Racism: Comparing presidencies in Guyana,” I traced the source of Jagdeo’s ethnic policies to the period of the Jagan presidency, 1992-1997. I believe Hoyte became implacably angry with President Jagan when he saw the ethnic directions Jagan was going into. This explains the post-election violence of 1997 and 2001
One of the defining moments in Hoyte’s post president career was the Rosinante Coop incident. From thereon, Hoyte wanted to remove the PPP Government. A Black Coop, the Rosinante, got an injunction from the High Court to stop the Jagan Government from evicting them. Jagan ignored the injunction. The land was given over to an Indian farming group. It remains one of the worst cases of ethnic insensitivity in this country
Jagan virtually cleared the civil service and public sector of African seniors. So convinced was Cheddi Jagan of the need to demobilize African political economy that he removed duty free cars for UG lecturers in 1995.
Two instructive moments of the Jagan presidency will live on in my mind forever. On both occasions I spoke directly to him about how I felt. One was the removal of Malcolm Harripaul as the head of the Fraud Squad inside Customs and Excise. Harripaul’s dragnet hauled in countless Indian businessmen who were evading duties. Harripaul didn’t understand that he had to employ an ethnic policy in his job. The businessmen went to President Jagan himself and Harripaul was fired
Jagan’s secretary allowed me to speak to him. These were his words when I asked for the recall of Harripaul. Jagan said in a laughing tone. “That man is crazy, he shoots from the hip.” I spoke to President Jagan on the non-appointment of Professor Clive Thomas in 1993 as Vice-Chancellor of UG. Jagan said to me; “He must make an application like everyone else.”
With the same mouth, he was inviting Indians from the disapora to come to Guyana for state jobs. Jagan just didn’t want Thomas to work in any influential capacity in Guyana. I honestly believe that both Cheddi and Janet Jagan had a few racist bones in them. To overlook his role in ethnic cleansing in Guyana from 1992 is simply an act of indecency and dishonesty
Frederick Kissoon

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