PPP Executive Navin Chandarpal says the recent attacks against him are being directed by a team with a mandate to discredit his political contributions, but the veteran politician adds that he remains unbowed by the efforts to bring him down.
In an interview with this newspaper on Saturday, Chandarpal said the people will recognise the truth when they see it.
“These (attacks) have been organised by a special team which was directed to malign me and undermine my contributions and current political thoughts and activities. I don’t pay much heed to them but am encouraged by numerous calls of support from Guyanese of all walks of life in and out of the Party and in and out of Guyana saying that they know the truth and recognise the principles I stand for.”
The latest of these attacks was an unattributed letter in the state newspaper Guyana Chronicle in which the writer who claimed to be the wife of Chandarpal’s former chauffeur alleged that he nearly cost them their marriage. However, in a subsequent letter to this newspaper, Dhanwantie Shivdhan, the wife of Chandarpal’s former driver, asserted that she had written no such letter and dubbed it “a lie and “a forgery.”
Chandarpal, a former science advisor to President Bharrat Jagdeo, noted this development on Saturday saying that “the fabricators of the letters are the ones who have a lot to answer for.” He came under a scathing attack from his former boss last month with Jagdeo accusing him of frequenting “rumshops” and being guilty of non-performance in his advisory role hence his removal from the post. It was following this that the letter appeared in the state-run newspaper with the writer saying they believed the president’s statements.
But even before that, another letter had appeared in the press, again in the Chronicle, in which the writer accused Chandarpal of influencing the recent postures of the sugar workers union, GAWU and the workers’ attitude. However, he had dismissed the claim as a failure to understand how the union worked and in a not too veiled reference to Jagdeo had said that the writer would think that way because he was accustomed to a “one-man show.”
The sugar workers, a traditionally large voting block for the PPP have been showing increasing disenchantment with the industry and its management and Chandarpal had stated that it was the workers political knowledge that should be feared.
“They know that sugar workers will be looking towards a candidate who is not hostile to GAWU and who has demonstrated support for the struggle of sugar workers. The only way that any hopeful with presidential ambitions can become acceptable to sugar workers is to stand up unequivocally for the workers and dissociate themselves from the assault on workers carried out by GuySuCo. It’s not me that they should be worried about. It’s the advanced political knowledge of the majority of sugar workers that they have to be fearful of,” he had said.
Chandarpal, the principal of GAWU’s labour college, on Saturday said the party could not divert from its principles at this time in choosing its presidential candidate.
“The issue of the choice of the presidential candidate has to be resolved in such a way that the party will maintain its core principles of championing the cause of the broad masses of the Guyanese people and govern Guyana on their behalf,” he said.
Chandarpal has also supported the view that the PPP presidential candidate should be chosen by secret ballot if there is more than one contender. President Jagdeo and PPP General Secretary Donald Ramotar are in favour of an open vote.
Chandarpal, along with his wife Indra, had been very close to both late presidents Cheddi Jagan and Janet Jagan. They, among others, are seen as protecting the legacy of the Jagans and have support at all levels of the party. Chandarpal has also been a consistent high vote-getter at party congresses.
He started in the youth arm of the party, the Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO) with early work done among secondary school students, teachers and at the University of Guyana (UG). He had served as the UG Student Society president 1974-75 after winning on a PYO ticket and led the student protest in support of Walter Rodney in 1974.
Chandarpal served as the first secretary of the PYO from 1976 to 1986 with the main responsibility of organising and mobilising youth and students in the struggle for the restoration of democracy in Guyana. He has been a member of the PPP Central Committee and Executive Committee since 1979 and also chairs the PPP Controls Committee, Manifesto Com-mittee and the Cheddi Jagan Commemoration Committee. Additionally, he has chaired the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre since the passing of Mrs. Jagan.
