Dear Editor,
As I reflect on the 29th year since the death of Cheddi Jagan, I wonder, were Cheddi Jagan, the President of Guyana in office today, what would have been his position with respect to Cuba, now experiencing the grave humanitarian crisis imposed by the US, and towards Iran, currently under joint military attack by America and Israel? In formulating a response, would President Jagan kept in mind his experience with the then US administration and British colonialist powers who, during the 1960’s plotted and planned his removal from office in 1964 as Premier? Would President Jagan in today’s context, hold to the view that the Trump administration’s foreign policy has placed ‘The West on Trial’ once again?
In contemplating such complex matters, would President Jagan not take into consideration the help the US gave Guyana to return to democracy through free and fair elections and for the PPP/C to be in government in 1992 and thereafter? Would President Jagan continue to ‘walk between the raindrops’ and to navigate a way for his government not to be viewed as uncooperative with the current US administration? Would he have earned the respect from the US had he adopted a neutral position? Would President Jagan maintain the long held policy of the PPP to oppose foreign intervention in sovereign states in violation of their sovereignty and territorial integrity? And would he, as continuation of that policy, denounce the kidnapping of the Venezuelan President and his wife and expresse opposition to US and Israel’s war on Iran? Would he have provoked the ire of Washington had he maintained a principled position on those matters?
Did President Jagan ever say no to a request from a sitting US President to assist with implementing a US policy in another country? Yes, he did to my knowledge, on four occasions. First, was to say no to a request from the US to establish a ‘safe-haven’ in Guyana for the resettlement of Haitian refugees as a means of defusing a crisis that had arisen in Haiti following the overthrow of the Aristide administration; a second no was to a request from the EU to remove the death penalty from the laws of Guyana; a third was to the US to stop sending Guyanese students to Cuba on scholarships and a fourth was to a multilateral lending agency request to privatize the Guyana Electricity Corporation.
But it was not always ‘no,’ there were examples of moderation and cooperation particularly with the US. The Jagan administration, on the basis of a Caricom commitment, despatched in September 1994, GDF troops to Haiti as part of a Caricom peace-keeping contingent; further, President Jagan pledged support to the Clinton administration for the implementation of a plan of action agreed at the first summit of the Americas held in December 1994 in Miami; in his call for the establishment of ‘A New Global Human Order’ President Jagan called for a ‘partnership’ between the industrialized North and the global South to address the foreign debt, underdevelopment, social disintegration and against drug trafficking and crime.
Would President Jagan be bold enough today to warn that, ‘jingoism and xenophobia are raising their ugly heads and that across the globe the neofascists, the conservative far-right and the religious far-right are gaining political ground’? Would he hold to his view that in today’s world, ‘the rich is getting richer at the expense of the poor, and the gap between the developed and developing countries is ever-widening?’ Would he be congratulated for espousing the view that ‘the North and South must be in ‘interdependence, cooperation and partnership’ with each other?
Who would have President Jagan offended had he maintained that past ‘models of development’ have proven to be wanting? That ‘Capitalism’s market-driven neo-liberalism for developing countries is harking back to models which had a history of failure especially in Latin America and the Caribbean;? Would Dr Jagan and the PPP been welcomed as a member of the Socialist International- a grouping of social democratic political parties – had he pursued membership before passing away? These are searching questions that we Guyanese need to ponder as we reflect on Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s life work in the world today twenty-nine years after his passing.