A stalwart of a genu¬ine and caring rep¬resentative of the working class and a stalwart of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Party Organiser in the West Demerara, Pariag Sukhai, has died at age 87.

Comrade Sukhai was a dedicated and a loyal mem¬ber of the PPP. My first hug with him was in 1969. Immediately after the 1968 election, Ramlakhan, who was head of the Rice Produc¬ers Association (RPA) in West Demerara, and Cde Dalchand took me on a visit to the West Coast of Demerara where I met Par¬iag at the Leono¬ra market, where he was selling the Mirror newspa¬per and Thunder at the time. He had such a charm¬ing personality that almost every vendor and/or customer at that market bought either a Mirror or Thunder from him. We joined him and within one hour, we sold 150 copies of the Mirror and 100 copies of the Thunder.
We also had a meeting with PPP activists at the Leonora Market, then we moved onto Windsor For¬est, where we had a meet¬ing with rice farmers at Mr. Ramlakhan’s bottom house. Significantly, while Messrs Ramlakhan and Dalchand spoke about the problems affecting the farmers, Par¬iag was quick to call on the PPP activists in the area to do Party work and prepare for a budget picket line in Georgetown.
Pariag contributed signif¬icantly in making me what I am today.
He rode an MZ motor¬cycle to facilitate his move¬ment in the entire West Demerara and as Party Or¬ganiser, he was consistent and determined to make a member of the Progressive Youth Organization one of the People’s Progressive Party. Some days this dedi¬cated man would wait until we had finished a cricket match to hold a meeting, where he would speak to all the youths present. He was convincing and won our support from a very young age. He organized ideo¬logical seminars and made sure that we attended. He organized and recruited us to attend Accabre College at Land of Canaan on the East Bank of Demerara. As young students, we were in¬deed motivated to listen to lectures from person like Ranjie Chandisingh, Vin¬cent Teekah, Clinton Col¬lymore and above all, the great man himself Dr Ched¬di Jagan.
Pariag Sukhai was a dedicated, hardworking and consistent Party Organiser and after preparing other cadres to take over that role, he was promoted to General Secretary of the Guyana Agriculture Producers As¬sociation (GAPA) and the Guyana Rice Producers As¬sociation (GRPA).
He was a member of the PPP’s Central Committee and was also very active in the Party’s Regional Com¬mittee. He was an avid reader of the party’s litera¬ture and was a captivating speaker at seminars and ideological discussions and was always willing to share his experience with the younger Comrades.
Pariag was also strongly involved in the struggle for a better life for the Guya¬nese people and was a con¬stant target by the Burnham regime. He was locked up frequently, but this made him even stronger and more determined. In the picket lines he was very vocal and at public meetings his words were heeded by many. I would never forget Pariag at bottom house meetings, where he was an inspiration to us youngster to continue the struggle in the PPP.
Pariag was in the habit of calling his “Challas” his real friends; we remember him riding that motorcycle all hours in the night to get his work done. He knew how to raise funds at a Gymkhana or a picnic.
In 1992, he was appointed Chairman of the Regional Democratic Council, Re¬gion 3 and elected a Mem¬ber of Parliament. His stint as Chairman was again ex¬cellent, working closely es¬pecially with the farmers.
A few days before he died, Pariag reminded me that the unity of the PPP is important.
Pariag spent more than half his life – than fifty years – fighting for the rights of the working class, representing the masses and motivating the cadres of the PPP to work for a better Guyana.
May he rest in peace.