PRIOR to his death on March 6, 1997, the late Dr Cheddi Jagan was said to have had a firm handle on the issues that plagued development, and had envisioned policies — characterised by a sense of realism — that would have allowed the Guyanese people to progress along a path of development.

An interview with Dr Jagan in 1995 to mark the third anniversary of his party in office, following the historic 1992 elections, rebroadcast on local airways this past week, testifies to this. “We must advance opportunities to grow…our programme is very realistic, we understand (the needs of the Guyanese people,”) Dr Jagan said at one point during the interview.

Several years after his passing, many of those ideas have come to fruition, in particular Guyana’s pioneering Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) – considered a means to address what he had then called “Earth Warming,” but which is now more commonly called ‘Global Warming’.

Today, his Party, supporters and well-wishers mark his memory via the annual memorial service held at the Babu John Crematorium, Port Mourant, Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) – an event that celebrates the life and struggles of Dr Jagan, who died on March 6, 1997 after a brief period of illness.

Almost two decades after his passing, his extensive legacy is still praised.

PEOPLE-CENTRED DEVELOPMENT

President Donald Ramotar, in an exclusive interview with the Chronicle, contends that the quintessential thread woven through Dr Jagan’s fight for Guyana and the Guyanese people was his renowned philosophy — ‘development with a human face’.

President Ramotar said, “When Dr. Jagan came to government in 1992, Guyana was going through a lot, especially a difficult period with the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund), which had agreed to a restructuring of the country’s economic policies. It was then that Dr Jagan pointed out that there must be development with a human face despite the economic constraints we faced.”

The President disclosed that it was on this basis that negotiations were concluded and, as part of the economy’s restructuring, emphasis was placed on protecting those who were vulnerable in the Guyanese society.

“Dr Jagan insisted that we ensure that the people are not the ones who would feel the pain of restructuring (the) economy, and that was a balance we had to tread,” President Ramotar said.

Now that Guyana has graduated out of that process, the current administration continues to engage the two financial institutions on progressive developmental undertakings, with focus on the oversight role they play relative to ensuring sustained economic growth the likes of which Guyana has seen in the last several years.

Fast forward to 2015, and President Ramotar is contending that the circumstances that birthed Dr Jagan’s philosophy of ‘development with a human face’ continue to pervade the policies, programmes, and even legislation advanced by the current administration and the Party Dr Jagan had founded.

“We can see the underpinnings of that policy in our housing programme, which was one of the efforts we started in the early years of the PPP/C Administration, with emphasis on ensuring that persons in the low income bracket can own their own homes. Today the housing programme is one of the most impressive in the Caribbean,” the President said.

Dr Jagan’s philosophy, he added, characterised other transformative endeavours that have been met with record-breaking success, particularly in the education sector.

“In the education sector, our policies are rooted in Dr Jagan’s philosophy, in the philosophy that development of our country depends on developing the quality of our people. There is an undeniable nexus between education and poverty; the better educated our people are, the lower the poverty rates are,” President Ramotar said.

He underscored the fact that, over the years, the poverty rate has been reduced simultaneously with the advances in the education sector – the highest nursery enrollment rate in the Caribbean; universal primary education; the lowest dropout rates in the Caribbean; the building of new schools, some with dormitories; improved access to, and a tangibly significant assistance programme.

“We are staying true to the basic tenets of Dr Jagan’s ideals, which he founded the Party on and which he left as his legacy. Our social policies in moving the development of our country forward are a clear reflection of that,” the President said.

CHANGING CHALLENGES
President Ramotar acknowledged that while the challenges to current development efforts are changing, they are not that different in the historic development dynamic in Guyana.

He said, “We have moved Guyana from (being) a poor developing country to a middle-income country. The challenges in getting there are similar to the challenges we face moving forward, moving Guyana from (being) a middle-income country to a developed nation.”

Combating these snags, the President said, demands a vision for Guyana that translates to improved lives for all the Guyanese people. “We want more jobs, more opportunities and more development,” he said.

The Administration’s flagship initiatives in regard to these objectives are the Amaila Falls Hydropower project; the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) expansion programme; the Specialty Hospital; major tourism boosters like the Marriott Hotel; and the Hope Canal project, which is a major climate change adaptation initiative, among other infrastructural works.

“We want development. We want more for the Guyanese people, and that is what we will do,” President Ramotar said, adding that a deep water harbour project is another major undertaking that has to receive attention.

“We badly need this. These are the things that we need, and these are the things that will form part of our priorities for the Government in the interest of the Guyanese people, for all the Guyanese people, going forward,” he posited.

LIVED FOR GUYANESE
‘For Guyanese’ is a term that characterised the life of Dr Jagan.

Born on March 22, 1918 at Port Mourant, he was the son of indentured plantation workers. His mother and father, along with two grandmothers and an uncle, came to the then British Guiana from Uttar Pradesh, India.

After 28 years in Opposition, Dr. Jagan emerged victorious at the polls on October 5, 1992, and became President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.

His dying words to the Guyanese people were: “Everything is going to be alright.”

By Vanessa Narine