– GRASSROOT DEMOCRACY
THE Government of Guyana, in collaboration with the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre hosted a Symposium from April 7 – 9 on Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s concept of a New Global Human Order. It would be recalled that the New Global Human Order was adopted at the 62nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2007. It is to the credit of Dr. Jagan and the diplomatic efforts of the Foreign Affairs Ministry that the Resolution received co-sponsorship of some seventy-four countries including China and India, two of the most populous countries of the world.

The Resolution received co-sponsorship from the neighboring countries of Suriname, Brazil and Venezuela in addition to that of the Caricom grouping of countries.

The Symposium seeks to refocus attention on the key elements of the New Global Human Order as articulated by the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan.

This was done through a number of scholarly presentations and discussions at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre which was established after his passing to encourage and foster research not only on his voluminous works and writings but also to familiarize the new generation of scholars to get a peep into the thinking and thought process of this remarkable visionary and scholar whose thinking continue to resonate in the global community.

The fact that his idea of a new global architecture has gained such acceptance at the international stage to a point of it being adopted by the United Nations is a victory not only for the ideas of Dr. Jagan but for the country and for that matter the region as a whole.

It was the strong and relentless advocacy for debt write-off and rescheduling which at one time was scoffed upon as wishful thinking that has now become a reality and as a result of which many highly indebted countries such as Guyana are now reaping the harvest of debt relief and debt write-off.

Thanks to the hard and painstaking efforts of Dr. Jagan to sensitize and externalize the debilitating effects of the debt burden, debt write-off has now been granted by the multi-national financial institutions to a number of countries under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative of which Guyana is one of the first and major beneficiaries.

The crux of Dr. Jagan’s New Global Human Order is that there is enough food and resources in the world to feed every man, woman and child.

The problem essentially has to do with the distribution of such resources which are heavily skewed in favour of the rich. In addition to the uneven distribution of resources, there is also the question of valuable resources being spent on weapons of mass destruction, which, if mobilized for human development, could end hunger, death and ignorance in the world at large.

The New Global Human Order, as the name implies, speaks to a more humane and caring society, one in which the resources of the world are spent on the upliftment of humanity as a whole and not to fatten the already rich and powerful. In this regard, the Resolution acknowledges that human development is inextricably linked to peace and security.

As pointed out by Guyana’s Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett during the opening session of the Conference at the Umana Yana, the New Global Human Order is by no means in competition with other development initiatives such as the Millennium Development Goals but rather takes a more holistic and comprehensive approach to human development.

The Symposium at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre is most timely and would certainly go a far way in advancing the process of human development along sustainable lines. The Organizers of this Symposium deserves full credit for having organized the Symposium on this the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PPP of which Dr. Jagan was the founding leader. 

The New Global Human Order, as the name implies, speaks to a more humane and caring society, one in which the resources of the world are spent on the upliftment of humanity as a whole and not to fatten the already rich and powerful. 

The crux of Dr. Jagan’s New Global Human Order is that there is enough food and resources in the world to feed every man, woman and child.