NEXT SUNDAY, at Babu Jaan in Berbice, Region 6, the leadership of the PPP will meet to observe the birth anniversary of Cheddi Jagan, who was born on that day. Jagan remains one of the great, phenomenal figures of the 20th century. He belonged to a country that, at the height of his fantastic activism, was not known in global society.
But Cheddi Jagan of Guyana remains one of the world’s most unique, respected, decent and humane persons ever to enter politics. How does he stack up against his detractors in Guyana from the 1950s onwards until 2026? Jagan remains the definitive man of the Guyanese nationality and to understand why his larger-than-life legacy lives on, the researcher has to do use the comparative methodology.
I have been fortunate to combine my academic status with my political praxis, thus it gives me a priceless microscope to watch Jagan and his detractors and make conclusions. This is what this column is about. The point of this analysis here must be boldly emphasised – Jagan was a better political creature and better human than all his detractors from the time the PPP was founded. Dr Jagan, in terms of morality, humanity, ethnical substance, towers above those in politics who criticised and disliked him.
In a newspaper column of 800 words, it is impossible to treat the comparison with any depth. It simply will not be adequate if you are going to enumerate Jagan’s detractors and quote their reservations and or dislike for him. To help the reader with more material from those who were the flawed critics of Dr Jagan and what they later became, two research items should be consulted. One is an unpublished paper by one of the Caribbean’s enduring scholars, Professor Jay Mandle, titled “Cheddi Jagan and the Ultra-Left in Guyana,” and the book by Frank Birbalsingh, “The People’s Progressive Party of Guyana: An oral history, 1950-1992. I now begin the comparison
Balram Singh Rai – He left Guyana after his acrimonious split with Dr Jagan in 1962 and migrated to the UK in 1970 and never returned to Guyana, even for a day. He died in 2022. He played no part in helping his country during the Burnham dictatorship and the Hoyte presidency.
Moses Bhagwan – He was expelled from the PPP in 1965 and later became part of the WPA. He hated Jagan from then on and that hatred despoiled his politics because he developed a Freudian resentment of the PPP. This explains his refusal to condemn the five-month-old attempts to derail the 2020 general elections. He has lived outside of Guyana for the past 35 years.
Eusi Kwayana – He accused Jagan of being pro-Indian and putting race above class. This very man spent a lifetime preaching the very thing he accused Jagan of. Kwayana’s love of Guyana was so great that he left Guyana in 2004 and has lived in the US since then. In April 2020, he refused to condemn the conspiracy to deny Guyanese their right to vote in the 2020 general elections.
Martin Carter – Suspected of being an MI6 plant in the PPP in the early 1950s. He was a harsh critic of Jagan and was expelled in 1955. He later became a senior figure in the British Council, then worked as the chief spokesperson for the Booker empire in Guyana.
Rupert Roopnaraine —Endowed with Anglo-Saxon characteristics, he felt he was intellectually superior to Jagan and held Jagan in contempt. Ravi Dev opined that Roopnaraine might have been recruited by the CIA when he was at Cornell University. Roopnaraine had a long, secret relationship with the PNC. He lent his support to the rigged 2020 election.
David DeCaires — Very critical of Jagan in the Birbalsingh book, he became a frenetic advocate of capitalism in Guyana. He founded a newspaper, the Stabroek News, that became the main vehicle for Western political theories in Guyana.
Clive Thomas — As reported by Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, the PPP and WPA were cooperating against the Burnham dictatorship in the 1970s and met monthly. In 1979, the WPA planned a day of uprising. When the PPP delegation to the talks asked Thomas about the day of the big rebellion, Thomas said that when it happens, the PPP will learn about it. Thomas became head of GuySuCo in the APNU government when sugar workers were being brutalised.
Paul Tennasssee. His father hated Jagan, so he followed in his father’s footsteps. Like Balram Singh Rai in 1964, he formed an electoral party to dent the PPP’s vote in 1992. He lost. He left Guyana in 1993 and never returned.
This is just a sample of the People who hated Dr Jagan but look what became of them. They couldn’t see that the fault was not Dr Jagan, but themselves. Dr Jagan will always remain the best human Guyana has crafted.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
