Joey Jagan needs to manage himself, learn some basic courtesies

Feb 18, 2024 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Dr Joey Jagan scathing attack on me is referred (Feb 16). Joey contends that I distorted and attacked his father’s legacy. I did no such thing. I suggest he look-up the meaning of distortion and attack since he misused the words. He also claims that Prof Clem Seecharan slandered Cheddi. I suggest Joey re-read my pieces as he misunderstood them about his father of whom I showered praises and simply pointing out he erred in being a communist leader of a capitalist people. I suggest he also look up the meaning of that word. Clem did not slander Cheddi. I urge both Joey and Clement Rohee to read Seecharan’s voluminous book that is professionally written with countless citations for every argument he makes about Cheddi. It was about power and the Cold War. Cheddi was on the wrong side of the Cold War in terms of Guyanese strategic interests, and he was proud of it.

I re-read my three pieces on Cheddi and the Cold War over the last week for signs of anything remotely close to an attack on Dr Cheddi and distortion of his communist ideology. I came across none. I consulted independent academics to point out where and how I attacked and distorted Jagan’s legacy. They saw none. They also noted that Joey and Clement Rohee did not identify distortions.  I simply pointed out errors that I and others felt were made by Cheddi in his struggle for independence. The root of his errors was communism (socialism and its other synonyms). He challenged America at the height of the Cold War, siding with the Soviet bloc. The British tried to moderate Cheddi’s behavior coaching him in DC what to tell JFK before he met the President in Oct ‘61. Cheddi ignored the advice. He virtually told JFK that he had a different way to go. And that was the Soviet-Cuban way, not Nyerere’s as Joey states.  Even Nyerere would have landed himself in trouble as left wingers in the Americas were unacceptable. When he met Kennedy at the White House, Cheddi told the President he was a Fabian socialist and proceeded to explain the superiority of socialism over capitalism. That led to his undoing in government until the Cold War ended whose end made it possible for Cheddi to return to office.

Unable to point out examples of distortions and or attacks, Joey resorted to personality attacks on me. It is an old but discredited strategy that when one does not have a strong case in a debate or discussion, one responds with personality attacks. I will reject advice to respond in kind about remarks people have been making about Joey. I won’t descend into the gutter. Cheddi would never approve of personality attacks. Cheddi used reasons to win an argument and was excellent at it.  Joey seems concerned about his father’s legacy. What did Joey do to preserve and promote it? His father was a founder of the PPP. In 2011, 2015, and 2020 Joey sided with opponents who sought to undo Cheddi’s legacy. Joey attacked and opposed candidate Donald Ramotar in 2011 and President in 2015. He also attacked Rohee and Ramotar as communists. And he slammed Ralph Ramkarran, an elderly statesman. All three were Jagan’s loyalists. Ramkarran, Rohee, Ramotar, Karshan, Mel Carpen, Samad Ally, Joe Kanhai, Raj Singh, among others were genuine Jaganites who stood up for Cheddi’s legacy.

It is pointed out that when the sign of Cheddi’s name was rooted down from the Red House and when the Cheddi Jagan Center was evicted, Joey was silent. People like me spoke up for and defended Cheddi; I was vociferous in opposition to the attempt to destroy Jagan’s legacy. Joey was silent during the 2020 rigging to deny the PPP and Irfaan Ali a victory.  Irfaan and Jagdeo are upholding aspects of Cheddi’s legacy.

Joey praised Aubrey Norton stating that he would rise perhaps to the Presidency against Irfaan. It won’t happen, according to respondents in a poll, although the findings are dynamic. Joey distorted the poll’s findings which called for a Congress to choose new leadership. Norton may well retain leadership of the PNC in a Congress, but he will be trounced by Irfaan who is doubly popular than him. The Congress is two months overdue, and Norton has not set a date which supporters demand. In attacking my polls, Joey failed to mention that I predicted a Norton victory in the 2021 leadership contest. I also stated that it would be unjust to deny him the Opposition Leader position and advocated for him. When the polls predicted his father’s and mother’s victories, he found no problems with them.

I note that I visited Freedom House multiple times during the 1980s through 1992, I never saw Joey. I interacted with Nagamootoo, Navin Chanderpaul, Harry Nokta, among other stalwarts of that era. I purchased the party’s publications to support the PPP printing press. I donated funds to the party every year as I did to WPA, PCD, URP, DLM, and other parties. Did Joey donate to the party or purchase its publications? I hardly saw Joey at protests and picketing exercises. I organized many that benefited the party. When I was cutting classes and or calling sick from work to attend rallies relating to Guyana, Joey was at his dentistry making money in capitalist New York (Brooklyn). Karshan and Chuck Mohan, and a few other ACG activists, were consistently at protests.  As I stated umpteenth times, Jagan was and will remain a hero.

Every time I was in Ankerville, I would go to the old man’s birth home or samadhi to pay homage. Whenever I had guests in Guyana, I took them to Cheddi’s home and his samadhi (cremation monument). The caretakers can attest to that fact. How many times Joey and Rohee visited that house or the Samadhi?  Cheddi was a great man with good intentions, but he was not faultless. And his faults should never be ignored. It is noted that the way to hell is paved with good intentions. And we certainly experienced hell from 1962 till the end of the dictatorship.

I should also note that Jagan didn’t save us from civil war. We had a ‘civil war’ 1962-64. Cheddi called the sugar strike in 1964 that worsened the race violence with the massacre of Indians in Wismar as the defining moment of the civil war.

Joey argued that nationalists in independence movements around the globe were socialists. Of the names he mentioned, all of their governments were overthrown except Nehru who was a different case and who worked closely with the British Crown. The west didn’t see a need to topple Nehru but toppled many radical governments in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. All left wingers were overthrown in the Americas.

Joey stated that I was only concerned about the fate of Indians. In a racially polarized society, which side should I, as an Indian activist, support? Which side should Cheddi, the de facto and de jure leader of Indians, support? I care about all of Guyana not only my race.  On race, I note that when Ravi Dev and I interacted with Cheddi in late 1980s on organizing the opposition against the dictatorship, he advised us to organize the Africans pointing out that he was organizing the Indians. He gave the same advice to Walter Rodney and other WPA activists in the 1970s when they met to coordinate strategies against the dictatorship. So Cheddi did appeal to race and is not to be blamed. He didn’t have a choice in a racially divided society where people voted and still vote race.

In responding to critiques, Joey needs to learn to disagree without being disrespectful.

Yours truly, 
Dr. Vishnu Bisram 

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• Cheddi’s legacy, Dr. Vishnu Bisram, Jagan’s loyalists. Ramkarran, Joe Kanhai, Karshan, Mel Carpen, Raj Singh, Ramotar, Rohee, Samad Ally

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