Dear Editor,
I would like to say “hear, hear,” to the letter by Mr Lincoln Lewis on April 7 in which he mentioned liberation theology and discussed the Trotman-Jagdeo episode at the National Park (‘Saturday night’s encounter should have encouraged Jagdeo, Trotman to walk the talk’).
All of your readers should go back and read this letter again, and there will be light. Mr Lewis has written, in my view, one of the best letters I have ever read in your letter section, in every frame of reference one can conceive, from expression, coherence and clarity to perception, comprehension and depth.
Editor, I have met and talked to Mr Lewis many times, but his letter has verified the fact that a man who is so involved in the rights of the toilers of this country can display an intellectualism, as seen in his letter, which will be hard to surpass.
As a writer myself, who writes from the heart, I would concede that this letter probably expresses more from the heart than anything I have seen recently.
Editor, I guess that Mr Lewis, with his experiences in the trenches, fighting for better wages and working conditions for our fellow citizens, would have an advantage over most other writers in the sense that his heart has felt emotions for his fellow man which most of us might never experience. I know what I am talking about because I lived with President Cheddi and his whole career in politics started in the labour movement where he was grounded in workers’ betterment, and he always talked from the heart. Today, GAWU, which was President Cheddi’s sugar workers’ masterpiece, is being crippled by certain external forces, namely GuySuCo, which has become an albatross around the necks of the workers. The PPP under Jagan always stood with the workers against anything and anybody detrimental to their interests, and I hope and pray that Mr Komal Chand and his leadership in GAWU can always follow the path of Jagan, no matter what, to stand back to back, in protecting the full rights not only of the sugar workers, but all of our citizens who need union representation.
Maybe, Mr Lewis’s next letter should be his analysis of what is transpiring in the sugar industry, and I am positive that his views will carry great validity for your readers.
I know that, no matter what, Mr Lewis will always stand with the all the workers of Guyana, no matter what they do for a living.
Editor, Lincoln Lewis has expressed sentiments, repeat, from the heart; he has brought, in his letter, repeat, intellectualism grounded in reality; and he has held out the thesis of the practical effects of a god for change and betterment, repeat, liberation theology. Editor, please allow me to close with this quote from Matahma Gandhi who used liberation theology to free his people many years ago and inspired Martin Luther King’s movement in the US:
“For me, politics bereft of religion is absolute dirt, ever to be shunned. Politics concerns nations and that which concerns the welfare of nations must be one of the concerns of a man who is religiously inclined, in other words, a seeker after God and Truth.
“For me, God and Truth are convertible terms, and if anyone told me that God was a god of untruth or a god of torture, I would decline to worship Him. Indeed, religion should pervade every one of our actions.
“Here religion does not mean sectarianism. It means a belief in ordered moral government of the universe. It is not less real because it is unseen.
“This religion transcends Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, etc. It does not supersede them. It harmonizes them and gives them reality. Therefore, in politics also we have to establish the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan
(jr)