Dear Editor,
Joey Jagan’s letter, ‘Was never under consideration for presidency of Guyana,’ (SN, March 9) affords me the opportunity to contrast Dr Cheddi Jagan’s politics with his contemporaries of the Caribbean, and show how he was responsible for the PNC being in office for 28 years. Joey wrote that the PNC and WPA followed some form of Marxism. Neither the PNC nor the WPA ever declared themselves Marxist. The WPA never declared itself to be socialist, but it was a member of the Socialist International. The PNC in 1974, in the Sophia Declaration, adopted Cooperative Socialism. Guyana was not the only anglo-Caribbean country with socialist leaders.
Jamaica had Michael Manley, Barbados had Errol Barrow, and Trinidad and Tobago had Eric Williams. Of these leaders I will focus on Manley in order to examine Jagan’s politics. Michael Manley was a socialist. He was not a communist. Neither was he dogmatic in his belief. He was anti- imperialist, but not pro USSR. Like Burnham, he also nationalized the bauxite industry. Manley never advocated soviet style communism for Jamaica. He never sought a one party state. The USA never tried to prevent Manley from holding office, neither did the USA try to destabilize his government. Jamaica’s other leader was Edward Seaga who led a capitalist JLP. There was no threat to the democratic institutions in Jamaica, nor was there a danger to USA security. Manley was active in the Non-Aligned Movement, and he waited until the mid 1970s to establish diplomatic relations with Castro’s Cuba. The PNM and the JLP did engage in inter-party war in the streets of Kingston when armed groups regularly clashed with each other. But no party was ever deliberately kept out of office by a world power. There was no 28 years of wilderness in the opposition by any of the parties. In fact no party ever ruled for more than two consecutive terms. This was in stark contrast with Guyana.
In Guyana Dr Cheddi Jagan was removed from office in 1964 and he was kept out of government until 1992, by which time the USSR and world communism had collapsed, and so the PPP posed no threat to the USA. Ironically, Dr Jagan had premised his antagonistic and confrontational politics on the belief that it was the USA and world capitalism that would have collapsed. This caused him to stick rigidly to his communist dogmas when he visited the USA in 1961.
The Secretary of State for the Colonies Ian Macleod, and the head of Bookers Jock Campbell tried to convince the US that Dr Jagan was not a communist who presented any threat. The British Embassy in Washington counselled Dr Jagan to moderate his communist rhetoric whilst in the USA(Professor Clem Seecharran). But he could not contain himself from reiterating the supremacy of communism over capitalism. Dr Jagan had committed political suicide. He was the only Caribbean leader who was fanatically communist, anti-USA, and pro-USSR.
Dr Jagan was the cause of the 28 years rule of the PNC. The PPP was the cause of dictatorship in Guyana. The PPP supported dictatorship. PPP ideological beliefs caused it to support the PNC in 1975, to propose a National Front Government with the PNC in 1978, and to hold secret power-sharing talks with the PNC in the 1980s, thereby eliminating the need for elections. When Mr Hoyte became President in 1985 he terminated the plans for a one-party dictatorship. He also reversed the unpopular policies of the socialist experiment, and placed Guyana on the path to democracy.
Yours faithfully,
Malcolm Harripaul