–Dr Jagdeo affirms, as party revamps its political ideology
THE lengthy debate as to which traditional ideology is most suitable for Guyana has been put to an end by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), which has chosen the path of promoting a fair and equitable society while embracing ideological plurality, racial unity and religious harmony.
This was according to PPP General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, during the party’s post-congress press conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, on Sunday.
While explaining why the party chose to remove Marxism-Leninism from its constitution, Dr Jagdeo said that this does not mean the party is disregarding its history.
During the press conference, he said: “There was a fundamental resolution that has been written about in the media… and this is the question of [the] removal of socialism and Marxism–Leninism from our constitution, and I must say that today we had the unanimous support when the question was put to amend the resolution to remove Marxism–Leninism from our constitution and to remove socialism from our constitution.”
Further, the PPP General Secretary said that Central Committee member and Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C had put forth the question to the full house as it relates to the removal of Marxism-Leninism and “not a single person was opposed.”
Dr Jagdeo then added: “So this is a unanimous decision of our congress but that does not mean that we give up on our history of our working class ideology.”
While reading a section of the party’s constitution, he said: “The party’s strategic objective is to create a fair and equitable society. This objective will find expression in the establishment of a national democratic state, which is already in our constitution that will embrace political and ideological pluralism.”
The PPP General Secretary added: “So what this means is that you can be anybody, you can be a person who believes in socialism, [a] third way, you can believe in capitalism but you have a place in the party. You can be a business community, you can be a worker, a farmer, a fisherman, a bauxite worker [or] you can be an intellectual; you will find a place and a home in the People’s Progressive Party.”
He further said that the PPP is guided by the ideology of the working class and the party will ensure that the primary objective of its policies and programmes is geared towards improving the lives of working people, the poor and the dispossessed.
Dr Jagdeo said that such shall be achieved through a pro-poor approach to economic growth and development.
Additionally, the party will be organised on the basis of democratic centralism which is in line with the democratic principle of majority rule, he noted.
Further, Dr Jagdeo said that the party has replaced teaching its party members about Marxism-Leninism, which according to him is now an “alien concept” and instead they are educating members about the struggles, political philosophy, party’s founding principles, core values, history and achievements.
