By Michelle Gonsalves
THE youths of the community took the reins when residents of Saraswat on the West Coast of Demerara assembled at the Saraswat Primary School last Wednesday evening to celebrate the 21st Anniversary of “The return of Democracy to Guyana”, when the late former President Dr. Cheddi Jagan was elected president in 1992.

Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Juan Edghill, who was a special guest at the event, stressed the importance of believing in a cause. He noted that Dr. Jagan wanted to ensure that the voiceless was heard and made sure the poor, downtrodden and oppressed were represented.
Edghill said it was noteworthy that the celebration took place at Saraswat and not in Georgetown as Dr. Jagan recognised that every group and every community played a part in Guyana’s development and the people assembled for the event were testimony to that fact.
He pointed out that although some persons believe that people living in rural areas are only good for “planting cane, catching fish and making babies”, the children of rice farmers, sugarcane workers and fishermen go on to become Presidents, Ministers of Government, Medical Doctors, Administrators and Heads of Agencies.
Continuing, Edghill noted that this was because Dr. Jagan believed in a cause and made way for the development of all Guyanese. The late former president himself was born on March 22, 1918 to an ordinary sugar worker in a small rural village.
The performers ranging in age from five to fifteen-years-old performed dances and poems to honour the life of Dr. Cheddi Jagan and his wife Janet Jagan. The importance of education, with an emphasis on girls, was stressed in a motivational skit which depicted women in various fields including Law, Medicine and Business. The late martyr, Kowsilla, was honoured with a story detailing her sacrifice.
During his life as detailed in his autobiographical work “The West on Trial: My fight for Guyana’s Freedom”, Dr. Jagan struggled to liberate Guyana from British colonial domination, and then waged a 28-year struggle for the restoration of freedom and democracy and finally became Guyana’s first freely elected Head of State.
He was the founder of the country’s first mass political movement and unquestionably the leading political figure in the history of Guyana over the last 57 years. He was elected as a Member of the Legislative Council in 1947 and served in every Parliament until his election as President in 1992.
From April-October 1953, Dr. Jagan headed the first People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government. His party also won the 1957 and 1961 elections. He headed the third elected PPP Government as Premier and Minister of Development and Planning.
As an international figure he was well known for his fight for peace around the globe and in his later years for his proposals for a New Global Human Order, which were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 14, 2002.
He died on March 6, 1997. The Cheddi Jagan Research Centre was established in the year 2000 to preserve his papers and to provide a valuable historical record of this important period in Guyana’s history.