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The Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO)that serves as the youth arm of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), last evening held a night of reflection on the life of one of the party’s founder-leaders, the Late Dr. Cheddi Bharrat Jagan. Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, who was introduced as one of the remaining direct protégés of the late Dr. Jagan, and who continues to struggle against forces that try to subvert democracy, retraced the establishment and growth of the PYO and said: Jagan “left behind a cadre of young people whom he knew he could rely on to continue with his legacy.”
The minister was at the time addressing scores of particularly young supporters and colleague ministers, as well as Nadira Jagan-Brancier, who, in her remarks, recalled that her father and mother, Dr Jagan and Janet Jagan, were both political figures and were both wonderful parents who not only cared for the people of Guyana, but for their children and grandchildren as well.
“I just want the young people of Guyana to remember the Jagans for who they were,” according to Jagan-Brancier.
She said that there is no way the young people of Guyana can emulate the lives of the Jagans, if “you don’t know what they did…they stood for the oppressed and poor of this country and I don’t think they will ever be forgotten.”
Sheila Veerasammy of the Women’s Progressive Organisation (WPO), who also reflected on the lives of the Jagans, said that “we are working very hard to ensure that Cheddi’s vision is achieved and it can only be achieved through hardwork.
“Education was of utmost importance to Dr. Jagan”, according to Veerasammy, who also espoused that without the people, an election, cannot be won.
Rohee, who himself joined the party through its Youth Arm (PYO), spoke of its importance to the wider party in that it moulded and continues to mould future leaders.
Rohee was adamant that the way in which Dr. Jagan schooled persons in the party did not leave any space “for the kind of opportunistic tendencies that we saw manifested in certain individuals.”
Rohee was speaking directly to the former executive member of the party, Moses Nagamootoo, who had left the party in what the Home Affairs Minister called a shopping around forum.
The minister, as he retraced the steps of the PYO, and Jagan’s vision for the future leadership of the party, said that its members, having been schooled ideologically at home, were sent to various institutes abroad for scientific political training in places such as the Soviet Union, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, among other places, and said too that “incidentally Nagamootoo never went.”
“We in the PYO we were given certain tools,” said Rohee, and added that it is this that has been helping the leadership of the party over the years to analyse the various political developments in Guyana and to strategically approach them.
Rohee suggested that Nagamootoo may have felt disadvantaged because he was never selected to go abroad and chided, “I think that again explains why he is where he is now and why we are where we are now.”
In a clarion call to the current cadre of leaders in the PYO, Rohee said, “All you have to do is to apply yourself ,” a direct teaching of the late Dr. Jagan, according to Rohee.
“All we have to do is apply ourselves…we have to have conviction…we have to be convinced that we are on the right path.”
Rohee said that there are those that speak to the fact that Dr. Jagan has been dead for 16 years now, “but we who are his followers and who are trained and moulded by him are here.”
He said that what is expected of the PPP’s leadership, along with that of the PYO, is simple and straightforward; “it is to follow the legacy.”
Rohee reminded that it is because of the teachings and foundations left by Dr. Jagan that the party is the most dominant political force in Guyana, “not because we want to dominate, but because we don’t want to be dominated over.”
He said that as a result of what has been embedded in the party by Dr. Jagan, “the PPP and PYO have always adhered to progressive ideas, we have never supported backward or reactionary ideas, we have always supported ideas that are progressive.”
Rohee maintained that Dr. Jagan was a visionary in that he recognised that at some point in time the then leaders of the PPP would be replaced, either by death or other avenues.
He said that it was the acceptance of this reality by Jagan that caused him to ensure that future leaders will continue to be prepared to take the helm of the party through the PYO
“It shows the importance he attached to education, without ideological education, without understanding many things in terms of the scientific approach to politics, it would be difficult to carry out an analysis to understand the difficulties facing the country,” warned Rohee.
“Look at the sitting president of our country,” concluded Rohee, as testimony to the foundation laid by Dr. Jagan through the PYO, given that Head of State Donald Ramotar would have also been a product of the schooling entrenched by the late Dr. Jagan.
The minister was at the time addressing scores of particularly young supporters and colleague ministers, as well as Nadira Jagan-Brancier, who, in her remarks, recalled that her father and mother, Dr Jagan and Janet Jagan, were both political figures and were both wonderful parents who not only cared for the people of Guyana, but for their children and grandchildren as well.
“I just want the young people of Guyana to remember the Jagans for who they were,” according to Jagan-Brancier.
She said that there is no way the young people of Guyana can emulate the lives of the Jagans, if “you don’t know what they did…they stood for the oppressed and poor of this country and I don’t think they will ever be forgotten.”
Sheila Veerasammy of the Women’s Progressive Organisation (WPO), who also reflected on the lives of the Jagans, said that “we are working very hard to ensure that Cheddi’s vision is achieved and it can only be achieved through hardwork.
“Education was of utmost importance to Dr. Jagan”, according to Veerasammy, who also espoused that without the people, an election, cannot be won.
Rohee, who himself joined the party through its Youth Arm (PYO), spoke of its importance to the wider party in that it moulded and continues to mould future leaders.
Rohee was adamant that the way in which Dr. Jagan schooled persons in the party did not leave any space “for the kind of opportunistic tendencies that we saw manifested in certain individuals.”
Rohee was speaking directly to the former executive member of the party, Moses Nagamootoo, who had left the party in what the Home Affairs Minister called a shopping around forum.
The minister, as he retraced the steps of the PYO, and Jagan’s vision for the future leadership of the party, said that its members, having been schooled ideologically at home, were sent to various institutes abroad for scientific political training in places such as the Soviet Union, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, among other places, and said too that “incidentally Nagamootoo never went.”
“We in the PYO we were given certain tools,” said Rohee, and added that it is this that has been helping the leadership of the party over the years to analyse the various political developments in Guyana and to strategically approach them.
Rohee suggested that Nagamootoo may have felt disadvantaged because he was never selected to go abroad and chided, “I think that again explains why he is where he is now and why we are where we are now.”
In a clarion call to the current cadre of leaders in the PYO, Rohee said, “All you have to do is to apply yourself ,” a direct teaching of the late Dr. Jagan, according to Rohee.
“All we have to do is apply ourselves…we have to have conviction…we have to be convinced that we are on the right path.”
Rohee said that there are those that speak to the fact that Dr. Jagan has been dead for 16 years now, “but we who are his followers and who are trained and moulded by him are here.”
He said that what is expected of the PPP’s leadership, along with that of the PYO, is simple and straightforward; “it is to follow the legacy.”
Rohee reminded that it is because of the teachings and foundations left by Dr. Jagan that the party is the most dominant political force in Guyana, “not because we want to dominate, but because we don’t want to be dominated over.”
He said that as a result of what has been embedded in the party by Dr. Jagan, “the PPP and PYO have always adhered to progressive ideas, we have never supported backward or reactionary ideas, we have always supported ideas that are progressive.”
Rohee maintained that Dr. Jagan was a visionary in that he recognised that at some point in time the then leaders of the PPP would be replaced, either by death or other avenues.
He said that it was the acceptance of this reality by Jagan that caused him to ensure that future leaders will continue to be prepared to take the helm of the party through the PYO
“It shows the importance he attached to education, without ideological education, without understanding many things in terms of the scientific approach to politics, it would be difficult to carry out an analysis to understand the difficulties facing the country,” warned Rohee.
“Look at the sitting president of our country,” concluded Rohee, as testimony to the foundation laid by Dr. Jagan through the PYO, given that Head of State Donald Ramotar would have also been a product of the schooling entrenched by the late Dr. Jagan.
