One supporter of  an aspiring president, the latter who initially tried to ingratiate himself into the ranks of the sugar workers by denigrating Dr. Jagan, the godfather of the sugar industry, and is now trying the same tactics with the rice industry, tried to damn Dr. Jagan with faint praise.

His strategy has been to condemn the excesses of a Kaieteur News columnist, whom no-one takes seriously in any case, then in turn he says that Dr. Jagan had many faults, while quoting the good Doctor’s ideological preferences, as if these could be deemed a fault, when the man himself was so exceptionally humanitarian that whatever ideology he espoused was a configuration whereby which he always sought to promote the good of humankind in general, and of the Guyanese people in particular.

He equated Dr. Jagan with some other figures on the political scene whose history in the dynamics of nation-building in this country cannot bear scrutiny, even if they have matured and evolved to the point of respectability in latter years, and who certainly – not in an eternity, can never share the same frame as the indisputable Father of Guyana, who has proven his absolute love for all the people of this nation with everything that he did – every act, every word, every deed, throughout his adult life, even sacrificing his life because he was so determined to restore this country and its people to some degree of prosperity that he continuously postponed a simple surgical procedure that would have ensured that he lived, because his constitution was stronger than many men half his age.

One letter-writer, and an obvious opposition element, tried to attribute Dr. Jagan’s vision of a global configuration that would predispose to peaceful conflict-resolutions, intra and internationally, to indisputably brilliant and respected Professor Normal Girvan, because Professor Girvan had lectured on the subject in 2000.

This was, however, an erroneous conclusion, because Professor Girvan’s presentation was made long after Dr. Jagan died and the United Nations had adopted his concept of A New Global Human Order.

Through this compilation chronicling his perspective on configurations that could save the family of mankind in what he termed “this global village,” Dr. Jagan warned the developed world of catastrophic consequences if developmental dynamics were not reconfigured and reconstructed to take a holistic approach to global conflict resolution and development, and that even strong economies with sound fiscal groundings cannot ignore the imperative of redefining the parameters of their development dimensions to include the dynamics governing weaker economies struggling to emerge from a plethora of debt and other inhibitors to their growth patterns and indices, because each is interdependent on the other.

He posited that  the dire need for a new dispensation in the global construct should be of paramount concern to world leaders and should take precedence in discourses by Heads-of-States, with a view to achieving the eventual eradication of world hunger, which is also the goal adumbrated in the Millenium Developmental Goals (MDGs).

His prophetic warning came to pass the year that he died, in 1997, when the Eastern Tigers collapsed, and again in 2008, when the economies of the developed nations came crashing down like the twin towers, sending shockwaves into smaller economies with less fiscal stamina worldwide.

The Kaieteur News columnist aforementioned, in trying to promote the interests of the political party of his choice by destabilizing the image of the PPP and the credibility of its membership, especially the current President, has even gone so far as to impugn Dr. Jagan’s integrity by casting aspersions on the validity of facts documented in “The West on Trial,” which is the most comprehensive documentation of historical events in the emerging political climes of this country, and its aftermath.

Even Dr. Jagan’s bitterest enemies know what a truthful person he was, and how impeccable was his language and powers of recall in detailing events, and I may add, events that he lived, events in which he played a major part in the shaping of the destiny of this nation, and events, many of which derailed the progress of this nation in acts of betrayal by unpatriotic and self-serving elements, whom today are being equated with the great, good father of this nation, who more than once put his life on the line when he first fought the imperialists, then the undemocratic forces that sent this country plummeting to the bottom of the development charts of the globe.

Putting narrow political partisan interests above the greater defining truths of our history is unpatriotic, and the greater good of the nation should always be paramount.

Mr. Winston Murray displayed his maturity and patriotism when he supported Guyana’s position, as defined by the President, on the EU-driven Economic Partnership (sic) Agreement, because he is one of the finer minds, and one of the several members of the opposition who sometimes seem genuinely predisposed to rapprochement on issues that  promote this nation’s welfare.

His loyalty to his country superseded his inherent antipathy to the President and the Government of the day, to the extent where he was openly supportive of the President’s arguments for trading protocols in the EPA that would allow disadvantaged and vulnerable developing nations latitude that would not compromise their sovereignty and would facilitate a reconfiguration of trading paradigm in later years.

That the President’s singular stance against the European might won these concessions, from which the entire region will benefit, despite being ridiculed and criticized by other Heads of States, who are also benefitting from these concessions, is now history.

Global recognition at the highest international fora in his fight for the rights of developing nations to be compensated for the avoided deforestation of their forests and the reduced exploitation of their natural resources so that the world can benefit, which one protagonist called an ego-trip by President Jagdeo, is now fructifying as this concept has been catalysed onto the front-burner of international considerations by Head
s-of-States worldwide.

And one of the most satisfying of all, and which has vindicated President Jagdeo’s contention that the Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) has not been operating in a manner to optimize the potentials of the Region and should be reined in to function under the jurisdiction of the Caricom, was the assent of CARICOM Heads-of-State to President Jagdeo’s suggestion, which had been lambasted by local journalists, as they do, ad nauseum, all this Government’s policies and programmes, without considering that there may be some merit, and without allowing the fructification of visions that are designed to enhance the development potentials of our nation.

Dr. Jagan is no longer with us, but his spirit prevails in the PPP that he founded and moulded, and the young man he chose, first to structure and impel the nation’s economic wellbeing, then to pilot and catalyse the country’s development paradigm – to the levels where Guyana’s macro-economic fundamentals have been stabilized, and the economy is registering real growth after decades of plunder by undemocratic forces, and in spite of global and internal challenges, especially in light of the global financial meltdown.

Even from beyond the grave, Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s fatherly guidance is benefitting this nation, because the construct for good governance that he envisioned and created is prevailing over past and extant challenges.

Yet, despite the irrefutable evidence – in text and visual graphics, of the true history of this land, those seeking to destroy the gains achieved and to deconstruct and fragmentalise our nation continue to attempt to re-create our history and denigrate the Father of the Nation in attempts to advance their own nefarious agendas.

But the world will always have greater and lesser beings, and giants and pymies; and this season of Lent and Easter, Youman Nabi, and Phagwah commemorates respectively  the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his ascent to Heaven, the birth of Islam’s greatest Prophet Mohamed (OWBP), and the perennial triumph of good over evil.

Pull QUOTE:
Even from beyond the grave, Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s fatherly guidance is benefitting this nation, because the construct for good governance that he envisioned and created is prevailing over past and extant challenges.

PULL QUOTE:
Dr. Jagan is no longer with us, but his spirit prevails in the PPP that he founded and moulded, and the young man he chose, first to structure and impel the nation’s economic wellbeing, then to pilot and catalyse the country’s development paradigm – to the levels where Guyana’s macro-economic fundamentals have been stabilized, and the economy is registering real growth after decades of plunder by undemocratic forces, and in spite of global and internal challenges, especially in light of the global financial meltdown.

At the JFK  Airport, after moving tributes were paid to Dr. Jagan by US Government functionaries and other dignitaries, there was a 21-gun salute by five cannons.  The national anthems of Guyana and the US were played by a US Air Force military band, while the Guyanese contingent, together with some of the doctors and nurses who had taken care of Guyana’s President during his period of hospitalization at the Walter Reed Memorial Hospital, Dr. Jagan’s family, and the Guyanese contingent looked on.  The US army officers maintained their salutes throughout as the mighty guns blasted away as Dr. Jagan began his final journey home from a country where he had spent much of his youth, received his tertiary education, and found his bride and lifelong partner – the love of his life, who became the first woman President of Guyana subsequent to his death, the former Janet Rosenberg