Dear Editor,
Since I was little boy, I was an ardent follower of Dr. Cheddi Jagan. I was about 8, 9 or 10 years old when I would push my way between adults at political meetings held at the roadside opposite Success School, Leguan. I recall seeing close-up and listening to Cheddi Jagan, Forbes Burnham, Brindley Benn, Theophilous Lee, Daniel Debidin, and some others. In those days, it was the “all awe ah wan” PPP. I was an inquisitive (‘force-ripe’) youngster. I would sneak into my Harry chacha’s room and read the Commonwealth Magazine, and did some reading on Louis Fischer’s ‘The Life of Mahatma Gandhi’. I guess that I had an early political and spiritual awakening….
I left my unalloyed island for tertiary education in Georgetown. At first I lived on Wellington Street (opposite Acme) between Regent & Robb Streets when I often visited Freedom House. I occasionally saw Dr. Jagan getting out of a car and entering Freedom House. Georgetown was a new and different to me. The Teachers Training College and the University of Guyana opened new vistas intellectually speaking. I had great teachers like Dr. Harold Drayton and Dr. Joshua Ramsammy. I got hold of the Philosophy of Poverty by Proudhon and I also read Karl Marx’s Poverty of Philosophy. These readings introduced me to reason and logic in analyzing society – in a naïve way. Fast forward >>>
After completing post-graduate studies, I returned to UG and lectured in Biology. My teachers became my academic collaborators. I learned from experienced ones like Dr. Neville Trotz, Dr. George Walcott, Father Campayne, Dr. Clive Thomas, Father Malcolm Rodriguez, Dr. Harold Lutchman – and there were others. I also hung out with the technicians, gardeners, drivers – socially. I believe that I performed my duties rather well. My job was secure and I strove to work hard and save a little from the relatively poor salary at UG. I wanted the best for my family and never aped the yuppie lifestyle. Fast forward a little.
Sometime in 1976 – 1977, I was invited to the meet with Dr. Cheddi B. Jagan at his home. I knocked on the door, and it was Mrs. Janet Jagan who asked me in. The house that they lived in was in Bel Air. It was small and plain ordinary, probably a two-bedroom. Dr. Jagan and I shook hands and he pointed to a chair. “Have a seat, Comrade.” Mrs. Jagan went out of sight and returned with a glass of beverage. Dr. Jagan came to the point, “Comrade Girdhari (he knew my name), I like to ask you to do something for us – me and the Party. Form a small group of intellectuals and do research for us. Like a think tank. If we need information on any matter, we can call on you and your group can provide such information upon our request.” (to paraphrase)
I listened carefully and simply nodded in acquiescence. The meeting was over. I should point out that nothing came out of this – no think tank. But the visit was a life education for me. The Jagan’s house was rather small compared to other houses in Bel Air and Prashad Nagar, and moreso, for people of such national and international stature and repute. In addition, I observed that the furnishings were simple – not outlandish or extravagant – yet, with a touch of class where less is more! I saw books and mementos. This taught me and reminded me of the simple life that I was accustomed to in my growing-up years – not by choice, but because of lack of resources for the basic needs for a comfortable and decent life.
To me, Dr. Jagan’s life was not complex. Why? Because his life synchronizes with mine in many ways. He did not wear shoes till he was 12; I did not wear shoes until I was maybe 16, on and off, until 17 when I started teaching. When he moved from Ankerville, Port Mourant, he did “many chores such as washing the Elder’s car, carrying his lunch on his bicycle, going to market, and cutting grass for his goats… I particularly resented the latter. Cutting and fetching grass in the country was one thing; doing so in Georgetown as a Queen’s College student was quite another. Georgetown middle class snobbery had so influenced me that I soon found some pretext to persuade my father to find me other lodgings.” (From George Lamming, York University on March 2, 2002, p. 3) This “particularly irked me about my position in this household: firstly, I was singled out to go occasionally to the market; secondly, I had to sleep on the floor, although there was an empty room with a vacant bed.”
Those who criticize and chastise Cheddi Jagan are wrong. We should understand Jagan in totality – not cherry-pick, nor admonish, but examine his life holistically. His early experiences impacted his views on society in Guyana. His experiences at Howard University, in Chicago and New York City, observing firsthand the poverty, inequality and indignities of poor whites, and people of colour (especially the blacks in the ghettos) informed a mindset that steered his life – not as a dentist – but as a fighter for the underdog. During his tenure as a politician in power, he accomplished many things within a few years, e.g., unions (sawmill and GAWU), housing schemes (in the sugar belt), drainage and irrigation projects (Tapacuma and Black Bush), All Age Schools throughout the country and University of Guyana, Medex and cottage hospitals nationwide with resident doctors.
Cheddi Jagan finds common grounds with Liberation Theology and even the Bible which states clearly that “Believers [should] share their possessions”. He had a full grasp of society, having been “schooled” by history (of feudalism and the power dynamics) and by logic and reasoning, described otherwise as dialectic materialism. He also finds commonalities with freedom fighters (Kwame Nkhrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere and others) during an era of anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggles, jump-started by India’s Independence.
Cheddi was mis-understood by the U.S. and Britain; or it was all deliberate to maintain the status quo of Western hegemony, bearing in mind the enduring policy of the Monroe Doctrine and McCarthyism. After the damage was done, the United States acknowledged the wrong through the voice of Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who stated that the U.S. “had plotted against Cheddi Jagan, [and] apologized to Jagan for what he called “a great injustice” he and his Kennedy colleagues had helped to perpetrate. (https://www.thenation.com/article/schlesinger-nation/). Read also Schlesinger’s “A Thousand Days”. Fast forward >>> Several years ago, I read the ‘Minimalist’ in the NY Times. This synced with my belief system. I wrote an article entitled “The Essence of Moral Living” which encapsulates my broad outlook…. Today I will describe myself as a minimalist – a lifestyle inculcated in my childhood and witnessed in my meeting with Dr. Cheddi Jagan in 1976.
Sincerely,
Gary Girdhari
