WHILE RESEARCHING material for this article, I found notes of an interview that I had conducted with Mrs. Jagan several years ago.  The notes were in my handwriting and I could not remember the occasion because I had had many conversations with her.  However, this had obviously been done for a Republic Day subsequent to general elections in Guyana and I have decided to reproduce this as fitting the occasion.  The Jagans live on – and Mrs. Jagan speaks – in her own words, as follows:
This occasion (Republic Day) is a time of great joy for all of us.  We are applauding with these celebratory activities out great freedom-fighters who made this day possible.
The heart of Guyana was torn asunder with violence shortly after elections. We, most of us, lost our Christmas spirit, and that special brand of celebration that is peculiarly Guyanese lacked the normal camaraderie.
So we need to bring our Guyanese people together with our Mashramani celebrations.  Let us use our rich cultural mosaic, each with its special and very rich pattern, to interweave a beautiful tapestry of national unity.
Only good things can come from this. As we look at our neighbour let us see a Guyanese brother or sister instead of someone to hate because of a racial, political, or religious prejudice.
Nothing good can come out of hatred.  Working together, building together, laughing together, playing together we can show the world, first hand, through the lens of the camera, or the pens of a journalist, how beautiful the people of Guyana, with their diverse racial origins and variegated social interweaves, really are beneath the layers of misunderstanding created by misdirection.
My Government is continuing the work on the reconstruction of Guyana, which was started in 1992 by my late husband, President Cheddi Jagan, and ably continued by his trusted comrade, President Sam Hinds, after he died.
Our Cabinet is a working Cabinet – where consensus holds sway.  This has always been the policy of a PPP/Civic Government.  Everyone contributes to decision-making, after dialogue and exploration of all the available options before the implementation of any programme is undertaken.  An we are all committed to the service of the Guyanese nation.
First among every issue, I wish to state categorically that my Government stands firmly behind our Joint Services as they strive tirelessly to curb the wave of lawlessness that has invaded our society.  Guyanese and visitors to Guyana should be free to walk our streets and sleep in our beds without fear.
Members of our Joint Services have been tried and tested under fire and have not been found wanting in professional conduct, in a general way, and the Head of every national security body in Guyana has proven their commitment to upholding the laws of the land.
My Government is interested in creating a free Guyana, a new society: a society that is free from exploitation; a society that promotes the protection and empowerment of the weak and vulnerable; a society of equality and brotherhood, where tolerance, generosity and compassion in human relationships will prevail, and we will continue to strive tirelessly to upgrade living conditions in our country.
Although we have not reached to where we desire with electricity supply, even our worse critics have to admit that our power supply has improved tremendously since we took office, and this shows clearly what Guyanese can achieve if they strive together to find solutions, instead of continuously criticizing the efforts of others and demoralizing them in the process.  However, we are working with very antiquated equipment and we ask the public’s tolerance as we seek to continually upgrade this sector.
In the meanwhile we are examining, very closely, the option of hydro-electricity.  This is truly the way forward, and I want to mention that a little hydropower plant is in the process of being completed at Moco-Moco in the Rupununi.
We have also signed an agreement with an American firm (Texas-Ohio) to improve electricity in Linden, in partnership with the consumers’ organization.  So I would say that we are advancing well within the electricity sector.
As a nation we have a responsibility to our children, and a responsibility to the United Nations, to fulfill the provisions of the International Convention of the Rights of the Child, which says, inter alia, that every child must have the right to a good education.  We are working continuously to upgrade our education sector, which, I must say, has already improved tremendously.
We are also taking seriously our responsibility to provide for the good health of every child, especially in the areas of vaccination, preventive medicine, provision of pure water, etcetera.
We are very committed to take care of the homeless children, and we do not overlook the needs of the disabled.  We also have many other responsibilities to the nation – and that is what our programme in Parliament is all about – instituting systems to re-educated them academically and vocationally.

Our skills-training programmes are an example of this.  We want all of our young people off the streets and gainfully employed.  We want them to lead balanced lives, with opportunities for sporting and other recreational facilities available to them.
Our Police Commissioner and his officers have instituted community rehabilitation programmes to help young people from depressed to learn to integrate into active participation in the respective communities.  They have succeeded immeasurably wherever they have initiated a youth development programme.
Instead of rancorous and divisive attitudes, friendly engagements in Parliament could help to solve many of our people’s problems.
We want a harmonious country which embraces national unity – not merely as a concept, but as a way of life.  We want people to work together and avoid confrontation, because confrontation would not carry our country forward.  I think our Parliament provides us a means of working together in the interest of the nation.  Friendly engagements in Parliament in efforts to deal with issues of national importance can solve many of our problems.
Finance Minister Jagdeo is working hard at preparing a package to enable better living conditions in the near future.  This will improve incrementally until we have achieved our goal of prosperity, peace, and happiness in a united Guyanese nation.
These are exciting times:  we are traveling on a road to prosperity but, in order to reach our goal, we have to work hand-in-hand, together.
When Cheddi Jagan and I defied both sets of parents and got married we were very poor and all we could afford was a wedding at City Hall in Chicago, where we just had to pay a few dollars for a certificate.  I remember Cheddi bought me a flower and we had our picture taken at one of these little booths in which you put twenty-five cents.

Coming to Guyana the first time was an important milestone in my life. I will never forget the years of struggling together for this country.  I will never regret them either.  My husband was an unforgettable man. He’s been dead a year now and I think the contributions that he made and his unique qualities will remain in everyone’s memories for a long time.
As long a Guyanese remain free to dream, Cheddi will remain alive.  But what I want to bring out from this little anecdote is the important lesson that race does not matter.  We were from different cultures, yet we fought the same fight.  It was a long, hard fight, but we won in the end.  The Guyanese nation is free today.
Mashramani is a celebration of that fight and this freedom we have today. But freedom is a relative thing.  Kofi was a slave but in his mind he was a free man.
He had freedom in his mind to think and he was free
to dream of a better world for his people.
There are many persons who are imprisoned and who live inside sick bodies, but these things merely impede freedom of movement.  Many of the greatest persons who ever lived penned immortal philosophies, in prose and verse, from behind prison bars.  We have as examples South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, India’s Mahatma Gandhi and Pt. Nehru, and Guyana’s Cheddi Jagan.

In our own Camp Street prison scholars who are being given an opportunity to learn are achieving excellent results at the CXE exams.  Many skills are emerging from that depressed environment.  This indicates that much can be achieved once the mind is free to explore and widen the different options that will lead to the creation of a better individual life, and a better world.
This is a freedom where the mind can rise above the environment and create relationships and systems, even working together with opposing forces, to realize the potential for achievement that is inherent in every human being.
To return to the question of the rights of children, we are in the process of formulating relevant laws to protect our children, because they are the future of our nation.
We will also be focusing on the medical and dental health of our children.  The latter type of healthcare has decreased and  we have dental healthcare programmes that will come onstream shortly.
We are very concerned  about the proper education to prepare our children for the future.  That is why we are so adamant about bringing in the latest technology and having a good background in science.
Without that, I don’t think that our children would be able to keep updated on issues of international importance.
I want to touch on one issue of importance – an act of mine which seemingly showed disrespect to our legal system.
I had no intention to disrespect our judicial system with this act.  It was a symbolic gesture  made purely on impulse as a result of another effort to once more rob my Party of its success at the polls.  We have suffered for so many years as a Party and a nation because of being constantly robbed of our rights.
Here I was, being sworn in as President of Guyana and again efforts were being made to stop the ceremony.  When did we ever subject the PNC to this type of harassment, even when our elections were blatantly rigged?
I have had 45 years of this painful trial of what we had to go through, and tossing the document was an emotional reaction of mine to almost 45 years of frustration and persecution.  I should not have reacted this way and I once again apologise to the nation, but I also request understanding from my people.
We recognize that our people have suffered in the past and, though somewhat reduced, this suffering still continues in some ways, but my Government is working hard on the problems in order to enhance the quality of life of every Guyanese citizen.
Our victory at the polls was achieved in 1997 because the PPP/Civic Government has performed creditably in the first five years of its administration.  We went into the elections with the record of these achievements.  Five years ago the country was in absolute ruins.  The people were in despair and were losing hope.  The infrastructure of the country – housing, roads, water, everything is being re-built.  We are democratizing our institutions.  We have established a real working, democratic Parliament.  We now have Local Government elections, which had not been held for over twenty years.  There is freedom of the media, within the parameters of the law.  We removed fear from the lives of the people and established hope and a climate where Guyanese could dream of a better life for themselves and their children.
Dr. Jagan always held close to his heart the need to create a harmonious society.  My colleagues and I hold this concept close to our hearts as well and we will continue his efforts to remove whatever impediments that exist that are dividing us.
We cannot move forward and have a strong society, a strong economy, where we can remove poverty and unemployment unless all the people feel safe and secure and all work together in our society.
Education is the key factor in the survival and growth of any nation and we are addressing problems in this area with urgent priority.
Under this new Government we have increased the budgetary allocation for education by 27%, and we increased teachers’ salaries by over 300%.  We have also expanded pre-school and nursery training; we are moving ahead with changes in the curricula; we are printing some of our own school books, and we have activated Distance Education.
We have a large number of functional illiterates on our hands, which has prevented many of the young people between the ages of eighteen to late twenties from getting good jobs, so we are instituting systems to address this.
We must not take our freedom for granted, and we must not despoil our country with our own hands, because too many lives were sacrificed to win for us the freedoms that we are enjoying today.
We have come from different backgrounds and cultures, but we are one people who have the same goals – to live in our country which we can build for our children to inherit and develop further.
Today, let us look back at our past, learn lessons from it, and then teach our children the beauty and strength that comes from living in harmony and unity.  This is the true potential and the true strength of the Guyanese nation.  We must understand that it is only by uniting our strengths and resources can we overcome the obstacles threatening the survival and development of our country.  On this occasion I want to re-affirm my Government’s commitment to the democratic process of dialogue and discourse in the pursuit of resolution of all our problems so that our people can achieve all that Dr. Jagan had dreamt for this nation.