– `join with us in this enterprise of nation-building’
FORMER President Janet Jagan was yesterday cremated at the same site her husband was almost 12 years ago with a firm pledge by President Bharrat Jagdeo that the party they co-founded will remain true to their ideals of national unity and other central principles.

“We will never allow their ideals to disappear”, Mr. Jagdeo vowed to applause from thousands at the Babu John cemetery on the Corentyne coast in Berbice.

He admitted that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) co-founded by Janet and her husband and late President Dr. Cheddi Jagan and others almost 65 years ago, was not perfect, noting that with Janet’s death early Saturday morning, it was now without a Jagan as a leader.

“But although they are not here in living flesh, they will continue to guide us long into the future”, he said, declaring that the PPP and its Civic arm will continue to serve the people of this country so that their legacy lives on.

He acknowledged that their shoes will be hard to fill, stressing that the Jagans are irreplaceable and will forever be on a pedestal in the party.

“Their contributions will remain unmatched when we write the history of this land”, he said.

Mrs. Jagan, 88, died at the Georgetown Hospital early Saturday morning after she was admitted there Friday afternoon.

Thousands from all walks of life turned out for the final farewell to the American-born woman who came here almost 66 years ago with her husband and etched her name indelibly in Guyana’s history.

From the moving ceremony at Parliament Buildings in Georgetown in the morning, where sterling tributes to her struggles and sacrifices for Guyana continued, to the lighting of the funeral pyre under an overcast sky at the Babu John Cemetery, some 90 miles east in Berbice, Guyanese turned out in their numbers to bid her goodbye.

The crowds were mainly from the working class in which the PPP and the Jagans and other leaders are firmly rooted and a further fitting testimony to her esteem came at the end of the funeral service at Babu John with Mrs. Phyllis Carter, wife of the late National Poet Martin Carter, reading one of his poems dedicated to Janet.

Black flags of mourning and streamers of red, yellow and black of the PPP flag hung on power poles, bus stops and fences along the East Coast Demerara, through West Coast Berbice and along the Corentyne highway to the Babu John cemetery.

Police estimated the funeral procession of vehicles of all kinds was more than a mile long as the cortege turned on the road to the final stretch leading to the cemetery.

Several female members of the Guyana Defence Force rode with the casket draped in the colours of the national flag in the back of a truck covered by a tent as it moved from Georgetown to Babu John.

A GDF helicopter hovered overhead in Georgetown from early morning and it was there in Berbice as the proceedings wound up in the afternoon.

Huge billboards at the cemetery said `Farewell our Heroine’ and another of a smiling and waving Mrs. Jagan simply said, `People’s Champion – Janet Jagan, former President of Guyana’.

The cremation came earlier than scheduled because of threatening rain and a delay in the start of the proceedings.

The casket was borne from under a tent with a canopy of the colours of the PPP flag to the pile of wood mounted for the funeral pyre by white-suited members of the GDF Coastguard.

There was a gun salute and mournful trumpets sounded the `Last Post’ as President Jagdeo, the Jagans’ two children Dr. Cheddi `Joey’ Jagan and Nadira Jagan-Brancier, their spouses and five children, other close family members and leading PPP members and others gathered around the funeral pyre for the final rites.

The pyre was just south of the glazed tomb of Cheddi and Mrs. Jagan’s ashes are to be thrown at the mouths of the Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice rivers as were her husband’s.

After the military rites, the tributes at Babu John as the flames consumed the casket were in the same vein as those at a memorial service at the PPP Freedom House headquarters on Monday night and at Parliament Buildings.

But President Jagdeo noted that for the PPP, Babu John is now almost a “holy place” where supporters have gathered out of love annually since Cheddi’s death in March 1997 to pay him homage.

The same has to be done for Janet, he said, advising the party’s detractors that the PPP/C will grow from strength to strength.

He urged all Guyana to “join with us in this enterprise of nation-building” started by the Jagans, noting that it has not ended and “we have to make sure that we move it forward”.

“The only way it could move forward is if all of us work at this together”, he said.

The PPP/C, he said, will never become parochial and will be open to all Guyanese.

The President referred to an aside by Opposition Leader Robert Corbin at the Parliament Buildings ceremony that “maybe from now on we can work for national unity.”

“That’s wrong by implication because our party, when it started with Cheddi and Janet Jagan was always for national unity”, he declared to applause, adding that “it’s an essential part of our party.”

But, as he did at the beginning of the month at the annual Babu John memorial observances for Cheddi, Mr. Jagdeo emphasized that national unity cannot be forged based on threats of violence or bullyism.

“It’s national unity based on decency, principles and working for the good of all the people of this land. That is the kind of national unity we want (and) will continue to struggle for as we go forward”, he said.

“It is going to be a long road but the party is strong”, he stated.

Also speaking at the service were PPP General Secretary Donald Ramotar, Joey and Nadira Jagan and two granddaughters.