Dear Editor,
Clement Rohee’s letter debunking the distorted views of Vishnu Bisram, and consequently, Clem Seecharran, whose book slandering my father, President Cheddi, is the basis of Bisram’s connivance to attack Jagan’s role in Guyana’s history. Mr. Rohee’s letter is the truth, especially in the historical context and I congratulate him for his loyalty to his teacher, mentor and true leader, Cheddi Jagan. However, there are other facts that Mr. Rohee should have brought to the public’s attention.
First of all, since Bisram is concerned with Guyanese East Indians and Jagan’s policies (like if the Afro-Guyanese were not affected) it should be noted that Jagan made sure that his party kept Guyana out of a civil war and violent terrorism, even when faced with election rigging and dictatorial governance – this very inference should be the most important aspect of East Indians’ view of President Cheddi because violence would have hurt the Indian communities horribly and destroy-ed Guyana – especially after the terrible violence of the 1960s.
Cheddi Jagan protected and kept safe, not just East Indians, but all of Guyana from any conflict which would have destroyed our country and would have left a very dark legacy until today. Mr. Vishnu Bisram, instead of whining about Jagan’s Marxism, should be prostrate in thanking that great man for keeping him and his family safe. Bisram is nothing but a false ‘pundit’, trying to influence East Indians to blame and hate Jagan, even when Jagan never lost his allegiance to all Guyanese, to democratic norms in our country and especially to the safety of his East Indian supporters, even with his Marxist views.
Bisram forgets that many leaders of that period of world history were Marxists (of varying stripes), especially “Third World” leaders like Lumumba, Nehru, Nkrumah, Sukarno, Allende and many others. Jagan would never have consented to a Castroite (Cuban) Guyana but would have embraced a more Nyerere (Tanzania) type socialism with honesty, integrity and self-reliance with democracy as the main foci. Today, Tanzania is much better off and governed much better than Cuba all due to the wise leadership of its first leader, President Julius Nyerere.
Secondly, Editor, Bisram also claims to be a “pollster” and recently he said he did a poll of PNC supporters and the poll showed that Mr. Norton would be deposed at the next PNC congress – a laughable claim from a laughable poll because Mr. Norton is going nowhere but up. Bisram, from my observation, conducts fake polls just to get attention for his off-balanced views. As a matter of fact, I believe that Bisram is one of those “intellectuals” who morphs information, facts and figures into fake analyses like the ones he does on Jagan and Norton; his nonsense is reflected in his past polling and writings – he should go on a sabbatical and hibernate his mindlessness for a couple of years instead of attacking President Cheddi, a true icon and patriot of Guyana. Clem Seecharran should join him.
Sincerely,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr.)