Dear Editor,
I roamed the halls of Freedom House as a young boy. I had numerous interactions with the likes of Dr. and Mrs. Jagan, Gail Teixeira, Indra and Navin Chandarpal, Donald Ramotar, Moses Nagamootoo, Ralph Ramkarran and Clement Rohee among others. The “old heads” if I may, without being offensive. Call me naive, but they all seemed (somewhat) affable, approachable and polite at that time, but I guess that after almost 30 years over unchecked power, they have been reduced to shadows of their former selves. I ran into Rohee a few years ago and he patted me on the shoulder and said hello. Ms. Chandarpal was at a party I attended, and she asked how my mother was doing.
Nagamootoo, Ramkarran and Ramjattan walked away (pressured to leave?) when they recognized where the party was headed under Jagdeo, and I applauded them for that. Mr. Ramotar was cast aside and has become critical of the direction the party is headed. Sadly, Ms. Teixeira aligned herself with the much-reviled Jagdeo faction and lost what little respect I had for her. How could these people who fought the Burnham regime become shadows of their former selves? Or are they trapped? Voiceless “fossils” in Jagdeo’s one-man party?
Editor, this once respected party has become a reprehensible cult of personality politics. On the one hand we have those in the party who struggled valiantly in the civil rebellion of the 1970s and 1980s with the WPA and others who fought dictatorship, and now we have a faction that is anti-nationalistic and who are mostly concerned with lining the pockets of a certain section of society. The Jagdeo faction of the PPP has become the modern image of one-party rule. Uncompromising, and undiplomatic.
The sight of Jagdeo at his weekly press conferences, spouting falsehoods with impunity causes me to reflect on the days when politicians were respected more than reviled; when civility, not cuss out, was the order of the day. There was a Guyana to build back then, and the “dawn of a new era” envisioned by Dr. Jagan in 1992 has descended into the dark night of name calling and outright disregard for those who disagree with the maximum leader. On his worst day, Mr. Burnham would never refer to an opposition member as a “low life.” There was respect for our flag and office. There was decorum and decency. Now we have a puerile, petty PPP. Jagdeo should take note of what has happened to Modi in India and the ANC in South Africa. Better must come.
Yours faithfully,
Yuri Westmaas
