THE Peoples’ Progressive Party (PPP) has organised the month of March 2010 to coincide with the death anniversary of the departure of Dr Cheddi Jagan and comrade Janet Jagan from the earthly domain should not have been  any surprise.
That’s because PPP was paying the kind of tribute the man and woman themselves would have appreciated. They would have regarded the month- and the venues-as most appropriate. The working people of Guyana are meeting to celebrate their contributions.
I have had the honour and privilege, to work with Dr Cheddi Jagan in the Guyana Agricultural and General Union (GAWU) and the Guyana Rice Producer’s Association (GRPA) as a Field Secretary for ten years. I was always moved and deeply touched by the sincere way in which he expressed his beliefs, whether he was discussing political issues or industrial or farmers issues that impacted on the working man and woman of Guyana.
I remember he took Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and his Cabinet ministers with us to the Pomeroon River where people were living in hovels without potable water, electricity and proper sanitation facilities. Dr Jagan then asked his ministers, what is your life for if not to help these poor people? And although they still remain frightened of the implications of these questions, they cannot walk away from Dr Jagan’s dream. Those long, hard, wearying years when his love for every man, woman and child of this nation never faltered. He never gave up hope that one day he would win for the Guyanese people he considered his children a place in the sun where all could strive and prosper. This is the nature of a man who, while not forgetting his simple roots, rose in stature to become a world-class statesman who was highly respected by the international community.
Dr Jagan can never die. He is kept eternally alive in too many hearts like mine. I had been in correspondence with him although he was the Executive President I still had not escaped his charisma. Through the doors of GAWU walked Dr Cheddi Jagan, briskly walking, with a smile which broke across his face when he saw all of us. A smile which I came to know as the absolute charmer of all people. The group rushed forward to meet him.
The next thing I knew Dr Jagan had somehow reached and embraced me.” You have been doing a lot of work for us on the Essequibo Coast. Thank you for unionising the workers at CARICOM Rice Mills Ltd.” In the dark days I accompanied him at bottom house meetings held all over Region 2 as the chairperson at every meeting. It was in September 1992 that I received a personal letter  from Dr Cheddi inviting me to be the polling agent for the military voting at Anna Regina Police Station and so my fate was sealed with him until October,1992 general elections.
Looking back over those years, I have never regretted accepting his offer. What I have learnt in those dark days from him can never be erased even as circumstances change.