-comparison irrelevant- Luncheon
Amid growing outrage by some over comments by former president Bharrat Jagdeo who sought to compare his lifestyle to that of former presidents Cheddi and Janet Jagan, another person who was close to the Jagans has lambasted Jagdeo calling his comments “absurd.”
Sadie Amin, who was the personal assistant to the late President Janet Jagan and a longstanding member of the party reproved Jagdeo saying in a letter to Stabroek News that his comparison of Dr Jagan’s life to modern day ministers of government and himself was “cheese to chalk.”
“To compare Dr Jagan’s simple life and his home in Bel Air to what obtains today is absurd,” Amin wrote.
Jagdeo, a former two-term President said at a press conference he recently held “I don’t believe ministers should have to live in a logie to prove that they are not corrupt… Cheddi Jagan didn’t have to prove that by living in a logie.” This was his reply when asked if he believed that his posh home at Sparendaam and the rapid accumulation of wealth by ministers would be within the late president’s ideals.
“I don’t think Cheddi Jagan, living in Bel Air Park at that time, in a nice house, was typical of Guyana. But Cheddi Jagan lived at that time there. Did that weaken his commitment to the cause? No. At that time that was a prime area. It was a big piece of land, nice house and it still is a nice house,” Jagdeo said.
The letter from a seemingly annoyed Amin said that if Jagdeo had nothing good to say then he should remain quiet. “FORMER President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo should stick to the old adage: If you don’t have anything good to say SHUT UP!” Amin wrote.
She detailed her time with the Jagans and how frugal they were.
“Dr. Jagan and Mrs. Janet Jagan were way above reproach when it comes to modesty in both public and private life,” she stated.
“There’s a funny story about Cheddi’s legendary frugality. Apparently the roof of the house leaked and Janet would use the pots and pans to catch the drips. It was only when she ran out of drip pans that Cheddi reluctantly agreed to have the roof fixed,” Amin wrote.
She explained that in her almost ten years of working alongside Mrs. Jagan, not once could the label “fancy lifestyle” apply.
According to Amin, Mrs Jagan was the cause of complaints from her security detail as not only did the late president dislike the use of sirens but she also frequently stopped to make unscheduled visits.
When travelling, the late Head-of-State stayed at moderately priced hotels with kitchenette styled facilities. “No Marriott for us,” Amin said.
She said that the only time Mrs. Jagan was liberal in spending was on purchases of local art.
Amin pointed out that while there may be criticisms of the Jagans’ political outlook, such would not hold as it relates to their humble lifestyles. “One can criticize Dr and Mrs Jagan for their political views and their tenure as presidents but when it came to humility, simplicity and integrity with the public purse, only the unconscionable among us can cast even a pebble,” she wrote.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon when asked yesterday about the comparison of the lifestyles of Dr Jagan and Jagdeo, stated that he had not seen the letter by the Jagans’ daughter Nadira and could not respond.
However, he said, comparing the life of the late president to Jagdeo, over twenty years later was irrelevant. “I am not aware that an occasion necessarily presented itself for the defence of Dr. Jagan’s lifestyle. I don’t believe that Dr Jagan would have felt it necessary to go out there and to generate an issue about the style and the condition under which he existed,” Luncheon said.
“You are attaching a significance to something I consider insignificant. You have a former president and another former president twenty something years later and you are asking to do some comparisons of lifestyles. I don’t believe it is our concern if what your successor and their antecedents had or what is the significance of their being the same or dissimilar….it is still irrelevant,” he added.
Former PPP stalwart Ralph Ramkarran has said that it was a “sin” for Jagdeo to use the name of the late President Jagan to “justify his mansion, his pension and his Cadillac lifestyle.”
“The impression given by Dr. Jagdeo that Cheddi Jagan built a mansion, at the time comparable to his own, in an existing exclusive area is completely false and disingenuous”, Ramkarran said.
The Jagans’ daughter Nadira Jagan-Brancier had said that Jagdeo’s comments were untrue. “I am extremely disappointed that Bharrat Jagdeo would try to compare his lifestyle to that of my parents, former Presidents Dr. Cheddi Jagan and Mrs. Janet Jagan, and defend his opulent lifestyle by pathetically claiming that my parents also lived in a large house in an affluent community. Nothing could be further from the truth,” she had said.
PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee became visibly agitated when pressed by the media on Monday as to why no one from his party had challenged Jagdeo’s comparison of his lifestyle to that of the Jagans and offered no defence of the Jagans.
