I did not have to impose myself on a ‘vibrant’ PPP Georgetown District. I volunteered for the frightening, unwanted task of building a dynamic Georgetown District to manage its electoral constituents for the 1992 general elections, which I then handed over to Vincent Daniels. He was at the German Friendship Society and then later, during the same period, at the Michael Forde Bookshop.
All the names he mentioned in his letter I had recruited. He conveniently mentioned a few names close to him, and also conveniently omitted the unsung heroes of the campaign, like all of the groups at Cummings Lodge, Kingston, La Penitence, and Industry, and the individually brave soldiers, Gerhard Ramsaroop, Sasenarine Singh, Tarron Khemraj, Kiddie, Poi Poi, Dave, Fish, Lakhanlall, Sham, Carl (Beef), Benegal Singh, Rajendra Nauth Bisessar, Neisha Paul, Fazel Khan and Prakash Ramjattan. But then again, he did not know of these persons; how could he? He was not in the trenches!
I recruited Glen Ramchand who was at first rejected by the party on security grounds and then latter employed and transferred to Cheddi Jagan’s detail.
When I took the job, GT had four traditional groups, but by the time I resigned there were eight additional functioning party groups. Why does Mr Rodney want to glorify Janet Jagan’s role in the success story of Georgetown? The sum total of her role in Georgetown was:
1.addressing a Georgetown District Con-ference after 1992; and
2. presiding over a Georgetown District meeting tasked with the responsibility to name a list of persons to contest the 1994 Mayoral and City Council elections.
3. Some time in 1992 I was summoned before Janet Jagan and some senior members of the party to explain my method of recruitment of new members to the PPP groups in GT. I was told to stick to the said rules of the party and to recruit through the established groups. In all the years before my time, this method had found GT with four traditional groups. Now GT was growing but not under the influence of some senior members which was detested. Further, I was instructed to transfer my membership to the Campbellville Group. This I resisted and continued in my proven way.
4. In early 1992 I had taken Cheddi Jagan to a campaign within Albouystown, and as the countrywide custom was, wherever he went on an extended campaign the members of the area group would be responsible for his and the team’s meals, which in this case fell to Pasha, Ross and Neblett, who incidently did a splendid job. Cheddi always seemed to relish these meals and ate very heartily while conducting conversation.
On the following Monday, on my return to Freedom House, I was confronted with a message from Janet Jagan to call her immediately. Imagine my utter surprise when she accosted me and went into a diatribe about how I had prevented her husband from eating her lunch, which, according to her, I had prepared for her husband. Her exact words were, “Comrade Peters, don’t you know that I prepare my husband’s meals?” I know firstly, that that was not the practice on Cheddi’s campaign assignments, and secondly, during this period he was widely and popularly expected to become Guyana’s next President in a few short months.
5. During the period under review, Janet Jagan did go and address and make presentations at women’s softball and dominoes competitions that I organised at the Banks DIH Park.
6. Her principal role during this period was as one of the leaders of the party, and obviously she had domineering control of the Mirror and New Guyana Company Limited and a desk in the ‘halls’ at Freedom House.
I will not detail other trivial anecdotes involving her intrusive, imposing behaviour in this letter, on the work within Georgetown. Suffice it to say that I can’t “couple this narrative with the detachment vital for rigorous analysis” and the pedantics and semantics that Eddie wants to indulge in.
Yours faithfully,
Lionel Peters
