Some truths about the late Cheddi Jagan

Apr 03, 2018 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
The past two weeks witnessed some remarkable outpourings of praise for the late Cheddi Jagan on his 21st death anniversary and his 100th birthday, had he lived, thus it would be superfluous to add to this rather devotional acclaim.
While Dr. Jagan, who did some good for the country, was allegedly deemed a communist by Britain and America, no one was candid enough to highlight the numerous blunders and shortcomings of their fallen comrade. I will not mention his Jerry Springer-like antics during the Cold War as indicated in an earlier letter.
Upon his ascension to office as President of Guyana, Dr. Jagan made some bizarre cabinet appointments. Many of his chosen Ministers did not even have a High School education and some of his development programs were so absurd that they bordered on abject hypocrisy. Without elaborating further, suffice it to say that some of his choices of ministers were ridiculous and most depressing.
• In 1993, he established the Berbice Anti-smuggling Squad (BASS) which descended upon vendors and traders in the Corentyne and seized foodstuff, boat engines, clothes etc. in the name of illegal imports. These very people were some of Jagan’s most ardent supporters and huge campaign donors. What was he thinking?
• He ordered the Customs Department to be ‘supervised’ by the Fraud Squad with a security guard as its head.
• Dr. Jagan established a tighter system to curb illegal emigration—yet the PPP collected millions of dollars from illegal immigrants in North America.
• While in opposition, he vehemently criticized the Commissioner of Police, Laurie Lewis, but in assuming office, he retained him as head of the Police Force.
• While in power, his government doubled the consumption tax on beers and increased taxes on D’Aguiar Industries Holdings. Many felt it was payback for D’Aguiar and his United Force for forming a coalition with the PNC in 1964.
• While in opposition, Dr. Jagan criticized the PNC government for refusing to set up a Commission of Inquiry into Rodney’s death and extradite his alleged killer, Gregory Smith from French Guiana. But in government, he did neither of the two things he had asked for.
To this day, the PPP remains an un-democratic party, as it continues to hand-pick rather than elect its Presidential candidate.
In 1995, President Jagan visited New York and in response to a question from the audience about who would succeed him, his response was there was no need for him to name his successor because, “do I look like I would die soon?” Two years later he died in Washington, DC.
Leyland Chitlall Roopnaraine (New York)

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