ST VINCENT and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has charged that imperialists British and America paid lip service to democracy in Guyana, while at the same time accusing former President Dr. Cheddi Jagan of being a communist.But Dr. Gonsalves, who was at the time speaking at the Cheddi Jagan Annual Lecture at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, Kingston, Georgetown, said the accusation was misconceived.

He contended that the late founding leader of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) was wedded to a strategic approach of building socialism by way of parliamentary democracy.
He told the gathering which included Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, PPP Executive Hydar Ali, representatives of the Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO) and senior officials of the ruling party, that Dr. Jagan’s profound commitment to parliamentary and participatory democracy placed him at odds with the British and American powers.
But the imperialists, he said, who branded themselves bastions of democracy, did the opposite of what they professed, pointing to their scheming and disposal of Dr. Jagan from office in 1953 and their attempts in 1961.
“They said if Jagan, the communist is elected, there will be no democracy, but he is the man who at every turn showed himself committed to parliamentary democracy,” he told the gathering at the lecture titled “Cheddi Jagan: His Nationalism, His Regionalism and His Internationalism”.
The late leader, described as the Father of the Nation, saw democracy as the path to peaceful and sustainable social and economic development of Guyana.

On August 2, 1996, he said thus: “Democracy can only prosper in an environment of economic, social and ecological development. Poverty atrophies the vigour and initiative of the individual and depraves the society of incalculable human resources. If left unattended, the expansion of poverty and hunger and the hopelessness it engenders will undermine the fabric of our civilisation and the security of the democratic state…”
According to Dr. Gonsalves, the British and the Americans, who saw Dr. Jagan as a communist, were convenient in their actions towards him.
And this was evident in the actions of “high priests of democracy”, at Number 10 Downing Street, United Kingdom and in the White House, USA.
The action of these ‘bastions of democracy’ was reflected in their obstructionist tactics towards the PPP Administration in 1953, 1961 and 1964.
These fomented division and social unrest in Guyana, and Dr. Gonsalves was forthright in his view.
UNDERMINE
“They [British and Americans] were the ones who engineered the undermining of democracy in Guyana,” the prominent leader in the Caricom grouping said.
He said Dr. Jagan, the Marxist, was a quintessential Democrat, who because of his alignment with Communist and Socialist nations caused him to incur the wrath of the British and American Administrations.
But, he said, the late Guyanese leader was always a man grounded in fact, and was so guided, seeing the need for change when necessary due to changing circumstances.
CRITICAL SUPPORT
Dr. Jagan’s principled Marxist formation of unity and struggle led him in the late 1970s and 1980s to elaborate the practice of critical support to Forbes Burnham’s People’s National Congress (PNC) Government.
“Undoubted, there were salient features of Burnham’s domestic and international agenda which were nationalist and anti-imperialist; these received Jagan’s support, at the same time, he criticised those aspects of Burnham’s public policies which he considered to be anti-national and too accommodating to imperialism,” the Prime Minister said.
Regionally, Dr. Jagan was from the beginning, to the end of his life, a staunch defender of the Cuban Revolution, and this was evident in his speeches both in and out of Parliament.

UNSUPPORTIVE
Dr. Gonsalves said although Dr. Jagan saw Guyana as part of a wider Caribbean civilisation, for most of his political career, he was unsupportive of what was trumpeted as Caribbean integration.
As a Caribbean man, steep internationalist and socialist, who deeply embraced working people’s solidarity, he said Dr. Jagan was never against Caribbean integration.
But he viewed the brand trumpeted by some Caribbean leaders as window dressing, which served the interests of monopoly capital and its political promoters.
The St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister said Dr. Jagan’s bitter experience taught him (Dr. Jagan) that the Caribbean leaders who advocated deep Caribbean unity either remained silent or sided with the British Government without any reasonable justification, save and except their romantic Churchillian imperialism.
The statement was made in reference to their muteness on the suspension of the Constitution of British Guiana in 1953, and the removal of Jagan’s PPP after 100 days in office.
Dr. Jagan was also frank in his address to fellow Caricom leaders. In a speech made in 1992, the year he was returned to the presidency after free and fair elections, he said: “We (Caricom Heads of Governments) must set our face sternly against corruption and extravagance. We cannot have a Cadillac-style living with donkey-cart economies. Our leaders must set the example of democratic, accountable, clean and lean governance and efficient governance.”
The lecture by Dr. Gonsalves brought down the curtains on Cheddi Jagan Month of Activities 2015. The activities celebrate the life and work of the former President and late founding leader of the PPP.
Dr. Jagan was born on March 22, 1918, and passed away in the USA after a brief illness on March 6, 1997.
He was first elected Chief Minister of British Guiana in 1953, and later became Premier from 1961 to 1964, and later served as President of Guyana from 1992 to 1997.
By Tajeram Mohabir