– During ‘Night of Reflection’at Red House

GUYANA’s first female President Mrs. Janet Jagan was saluted by the Executive members of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), the party she co-founded with her husband Dr. Cheddi Jagan, as a stalwart in Guyana’s history and a woman of substance who dedicated a significant part of her life struggling for the betterment of hundreds of thousands of Guyanese.High ranking party officials, Ms. Gail Teixeira and Mr. Hydar Ally were among those who reflected on the life of Mrs Jagan at a function held at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre in High Street, Kingston on Wednesday last.

Both Ally and Teixeira fittingly reflected on the life and many contributions of this ‘amazing woman’ to a nation which she dedicated her entire adult lifetime to, leaving the United States where she was born and making Guyana her home.
The event was chaired by Women’s Progressive Organisation (WPO) General Secretary, Ms. Sheila Veerasammy, who described Mrs Jagan, who was also the founder of the WPO, as “God’s gift to the Guyanese people, especially to the women of Guyana”.
When she came to Guyana in December of 1943, she immediately recognised the harsh living and working conditions of our women and worked assiduously to change it, Veerasammy said, adding: “We will forever be indebted to this remarkable human being, a teacher, a friend, a comrade of the poor and the under privileged.”
“Her sterling contributions towards the development of Guyana through the roads she travelled and some of her successes were so great, that we must reflect on them to ensure that our young generation learn and are aware of what one extraordinary woman has done for her nation.” she continued.
Hydar Ally, speaking on her life as politician, noting that she stands tall among the great women in history, not only in Guyana, but in the Caribbean and the world over. A young woman who was born in the United States, she left one of the richest countries in the world at the time, following her marriage to a young dentist, Dr Cheddi Jagan, they plunged into the political life of her new homeland. In those years the country was still under the British colonial rule and life for the vast majority of the people was miserable.
Ally expressed his belief that within her was a burning desire to help people, to improve their livelihood, especially the poor and the down trodden and she found in her husband, a partner who shared the same sentiments and values; they proved to be a formidable force in the struggle for a free and independent Guyana.
“She was a people’s person. She had a passion to help those in need, something which spoke to her very essence and was evident throughout her life; she touched the life of countless number of people through her genuine concern for people and their wellbeing. “
He said, “Those of us who had the honour and privilege to work with her can attest to her simplicity and integrity, someone who is not concerned about herself but of the good of others, in particular the ordinary people.”
Her orientation to the working class people is evident from her many political achievements, id est, for the domestic workers (who were the second largest group of workers in the economy at that time) she moved a bill in parliament to protect them, through the legislature, in the case of injury from their employees.
She was also highly instrumental, during the early 1960s, in developing the party’s press, she edited the ‘Mirror’ and the ‘Thunder’, and she was also head of the party’s international committee.
Executive member Gail Teixeira also spoke of her writings in the “Mirror’ which exposed the riggings of the elections, she internationalised the problems faced by the country at that moment. She was a noted journalist who fought for the freedom of expression.
“She brought her pen which was her sword, to the politics of Guyana and she fought for the journalist rights, for the freedom of expression. She continued to write on journalists from other parts of the world that were being muzzled, so that her issue of the combination of human rights and international solidarity of humanism and humanitarianism were important ingredients that she brought to the party and the party’s philosophy,” she said.
Gail Teixeira was privileged to work ‘day in and day out’ with the Jagans, as such she expressed that Janet did not get to the top on account of her husband. Upon her arrival to British Guiana, she subsequently became involved with the works of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, fighting for the rights of sugar workers, domestic workers and the bauxite workers.
“She wasn’t just a ‘do-er’, while she was not considered to be a visionary like Cheddi, she was in no way a person who was just doing what the party wanted her to do. She was very much her own thinker, her own creative genius, in a completely different way from Cheddi and gave the PPP as a member a wonderful kaleidoscope, brought a wealth and depth of imagination, creativity, analysis, discussion and debate.”
The Executive Member illustrated that Janet was a petite revolutionary, who loved books and art, “She also brought into the party and to the meetings a level of political consciousness of what was going on in the rest of the world, teaching us that we were our brothers and sisters keepers, not only in Guyana but other parts of the world. And what was going on wrong in the world was something of concern to us, as Guyanese people. And so she had a very evident sense of humanism and an issue of international solidarity.”
Born Janet Rosenburg in Chicago, Illinois, USA on October 20, 1920 and passed away on March 28, 2009, had she lived she would have been 94 years. A social activist, Janet Jagan became not only the first deputy speaker in Guyana in 1953; she was the first in the world. She then became not only the prime minister of Guyana, but the first female president of the country. Additionally, the Times Magazine, in honour of International Women’s Day 2011, had named Janet Jagan as one of history’s most rebellious women. Within a batch of 16, she was classed with renowned revolutionaries such as Harriet Tubman.
In the 1960s, Janet Jagan said: “Throughout the decade of success and failure, loyalty and betrayal, disunity and unity, the party has held faith, during the most trying hours when the party was close to the edge of ruin, the loyalty and firm belief of its members was the party’s sound foundation that the masses of the working people and farmers had kept it alive and vigourous.” She was a visionary, a woman of unparallel distinction; she brought, and fought for a new concept to Guyana, that change is possible.
“To all the women of Guyana, she represents what we women in Guyana stand for, she is an example of Guyana womanhood. She came here at the age of 23, became president when she was in her late 60s and yet she was not Guyanese to some, she was more Guyanese than most Guyanese and she was a true Guyanese. She gave her love, her passion, her life her sacrifices for the Guyanese people and Guyana.” Teixeira said.
Among those present at the lecture, “Reflections on Janet Jagan” were members of the Diplomatic Corps – from the US Embassy, Cuban Ambassador to Guyana Julio Cesar Gonzalez Marchante, and Mexican Ambassador to Guyana, Francisco Olguin, among others.

(By Raveena Mangal)