They say the motivation behind great human achievements is a fear of being forgotten after we die. Great paintings, novels, music, a century at Bourda live on beyond the lives of their creators.
Whatever it was that drove the extraordinary life of the departed Dr Yesu Persaud, he will long be remembered by many for his gargantuan contributions to his motherland.
Obituaries and memorials are inevitably approximations, cobbled together from press clippings, and the memories of friends and family in order to arrive at a somewhat fuzzy image of the departed. But there are certain areas all can agree upon when it comes to Yesu Persaud. He came from humble roots and he kept that humility. He achieved much and believed others could too. He loved his country with a quiet consistency that transcended politics. And he affected so many lives in his breathtaking, multifaceted 93 years on this planet.
Many column inches have been dedicated already this week to his business accomplishments, perhaps chief among them his establishment of a world class product and brand, El Dorado Rum that has done much to improve the image of Guyana as a place for excellence and craftsmanship. His founding of the Demerara Bank and the Institute of Private Enterprise Development must have been meaningful to him because they go to what he believed in – helping others through the encouragement of entrepreneurship. As David Jessop wrote on Wednesday, his role in the establishment of the Caribbean Council had a large impact in helping the region’s industries make the transition forced upon them by the European Union’s brutal scrapping of trade preferences. His philanthropic works are astounding, in particular at the Georgetown Public Hospital, and reflect his deep concern for the Guyanese working class.
While a lot of his activities meant engaging with politicians, Persaud never entered politics and one could understand that his temperament might not have been suited to what is a viper’s den. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, his voice was still highly influential at critical moments in Guyana’s history.
In 1990 along with Bishop Randolph George he was an integral part in the formation of the civic organisation known as GUARD (Guyanese Action for Reform and Democracy). This movement has since been largely scrubbed from Guyana’s history books but it is worth recalling that for a brief time it was a powerful force that kickstarted the country on the road to electoral democracy. As David Yhann recalled in a 2011 letter, “GUARD’s role provided an opportunity for Guyanese across the political and social spectra, and across the racial divide to express themselves freely and to demand a return to democracy in our homeland.” In August of that year the observer group, Americas Watch, witnessed a large rally in central Georgetown “attended by approximately 10,000 persons”.
According to founder member Clairmont Lye, GUARD would ultimately be scuttled by its own decision to become a political organisation and by the luring of its Chairman Samuel Hinds to join the civic (withered) arm of the PPP.
However all this agitation did not go unpunished by the Hoyte administration which removed Persaud from his position at the Seals and Packaging Industries Limited. Later as head of the Private Sector Commission he was no cheerleader for the government of the day and would demonstrate an independent voice -sadly lacking in recent times – but which could also come at a cost.
Most notable was his interaction with then President Jagdeo at the launch of the Guyana Times newspaper in 2008. Persaud, who had actually been an early supporter of Jagdeo, had simply queried if the tax concessions granted to the newspaper’s owner Queens Atlantic would be extended to other ventures. A visibly angry Jagdeo retorted, “You are falling into the trap of ignorant people” and suggested that he needed a lesson in the country’s tax laws.
While the public humiliation must have been galling to someone who had contributed so much to Guyana already, Persaud kept his composure and the next morning at another event introduced the President with his usual grace and without a word said about the night before. He respected the office. In the end it was Jagdeo who was ignorant of his own laws and was forced to amend legislation to make the concessions legal. Only many years later did Persaud give himself a moment of public pleasure. “I was proven right because I know what I was talking about, and that gentleman didn’t know what he was talking about at all,” Persaud said during a 2012 interview with a small laugh.
There is also evidence that Persaud was deeply disturbed by the then Jagdeo administration’s pulling of state advertisements from this newspaper. As related in a US Embassy cable Persaud told the Ambassador and the Canadian High Commissioner that he and others were “particularly troubled by Jagdeo’s apparent willingness to hit his critics in the pocketbook, rather than merely lambasting them in public as he has done in the past.”
Fast forward to 2020 and again we see Persaud’s concern for his country with a March 25th Open Letter to President Granger following the delay in the election results. It is both a respectful and a forceful call to recognise the results while also a critique of our political system: “Our Constitution is not an ideal one, it gives unlimited power to an individual which is not good for any democracy. Our Constitution must not only be defended by political parties and our citizens, but also by democratic norms, or unwritten rules of tolerance and restraint. Without robust norms, constitutional checks and balances do not serve as the bulwarks of democracy we imagine them to be. Instead, institutions become political weapons, wielded forcefully by those who control them against those who do not. This is how elected autocrats subvert democracy, and other neutral agencies. This requires to be amended immediately which will benefit all Stakeholders and not only the political parties.”
It is not clear how much effect the letter had because it would take many months and court cases to arrive at an accurate result, but we might like to think it contributed to Granger’s concession.
Perhaps Persaud was by then less sanguine as to how much could be achieved without entering the fray. As he recalled in 2012, “My life was at risk in 1991 but I persevered… I did what I had to do, I was hated for it but I thought we would have had a change. But the change, yes there was a little change with Jagan but after he went and he didn’t name a successor… we have never seen the change we really wanted. We are still a country ruled by a clique and that is sad.”
The open letter from Persaud – himself an observant Hindu – appealed to Granger’s religious beliefs and reminded that “you come in this world with nothing and you leave with nothing and all that is left is what you have done for the people on earth.” At 91, Persaud might have been writing to himself, and there is no doubt that with his passing he has left a legacy of industry, service and patriotism that should be an example to all of us.
