Remembering the great Dr. Cheddi Jagan

Mar 27, 2026 Letters

Dear Editor,

Dr. Cheddi Jagan former President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, a son of the soil, a great leader, would always be remembered. Dr. Jagan was born on the 22^nd March 1918 in Port Mourant Berbice-Corentyne.

When you look at the history of this great leader, who started the political fight for this beautiful country we live in, he is undoubtfully and rightfully the father of this nation. He grew up in Corentyne where he attended the Primary school there, before leaving to attend Queen’s College at the age of 14 years between years 1933 to 1936. He then migrated to the United States of America where he attended the Howard University, and the North Western University where he was qualified as a Doctor in Dental Surgery.

During his time in the USA, he met Janet Jagan of Chicago Illinois in December 1942 and on the 5^th August 1943, they got married. Dr. Jagan and Janet Jagan got two children, Cheddi Jagan Jnr. and Nadira. Cde Dr. Cheddi returned with his wife to then British Guiana and set up his dental clinic in Georgetown. During that period while practicing dentistry, he got involved in the trade union movement and politics fighting for workers’ rights and in 1946 he established the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) along with his wife Janet, Ashton Chase and Jocelyn Hubbart.

This movement was also supported by Sydney King. Dr. Jagan then campaigned as a candidate for the East Coast Demerara constituency and was successfully being elected a member of the Legislative Assembly in 1947. He and his team then decided to form a political party. At that time, Forbes Burnham was included in the team and on the 1^st January, 1950 the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) was birthed with Dr. Jagan as leader, Forbes Burnham as Chairman and Janet Jagan as Secretary. This was Guyana’s first large mass-base political party formed. In the 1953 the PPP contested the British Guiana elections and had won the majority of votes. However, Dr. Jagan and his team of Ministers only lasted for 133 days when the British suspended the constitution putting them out of government.

However, the constitution was restored in 1957, the PPP again won the majority of votes and was allowed to form the government. At the 1961 elections the mighty PPP won again, however at that elections Dr. Jagan became the Premier and Minister of Development and planning.

During those times, both the British and the Americans were not comfortable with Dr. Jagan and Guyana being too friendly with Russia because that was the cold war period. So, they were thinking of a method that could be used instead of the first past the post system that could put the PPP in a difficult position in winning 1964 elections, so they introduced a Proportional Representation system. However, at the 1964 elections, although the PPP had acquired the majority of the votes at those elections, the British allowed the People’s National Congress – Forbes Burnham Party and the United Force – led by Peter D’aguiar to join forces together using the proportional representation system to form the government and putting the PPP out of power.

From 1964 t0 1992 some 28 years Dr. Jagan served as Opposition Leader, because all the elections from 1973 to 1985 were massively rigged in favor of the PNC. Based on our constitution, every 5 years Guyana holds elections; however, no elections were held in 1990 because Dr. Jagan rejected the voters list of electors due the thousands of PPP supporters were not on the lists, also Dr. Jagan called for the counting of the votes at the place of polls. Desmond Hoyte was President at that time did not want to accept the counting of votes at the polling place. However, due to international pressure and the introduction of the Carter Centre he was able to overcome that barrier.

Dr. Jagan knew that if the votes were counted at the polling place, he would have won the 5^th October 1992 elections, which he did and became President of Guyana. The first free and Fair elections since 1964. Dr. Cheddi Jagan died on the 6th March 1997. Both Dr. Jagan and Janet Jagan were Presidents of Guyana. He would always be remembered for his great leadership and a man who had fought for the working class and to restore democracy to Guyana.

Andrew Forsythe

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