Here are my thoughts and recollections of Cheddi Jagan.
I grew up in a very PPP supportive home where Jagan was king. Jagan was in the opposition from the time I was born so I don't know his previous history as premier other than what I heard and read. I always viewed Jagan as an honest person and I always supported his candidacy in all elections I voted in Guyana. I viewed him as a socialist who had Guyana's interest at heart. I think even though he could have been a Marxist at heart he was a socialist in practice. For example, he never called for seizure of property from the wealthy as Fidel Castro had done.
I think back in those days the vast majority of Guyanese were socialists. The multi nationals were seen as robbers and most people favored nationalism of major industries.
Cheddi always wanted to be the leader of Guyana. He also always wanted unity among the races. However, he understood the Indian numerical advantage and his ability to corner that voting block and used it to his advantage.
During the days of rigged elections he always wanted a peaceful struggle as opposed to military struggle to gain power. He did try to bring the Burnham government down through industrial unrest including favoring the burning of sugar cane fields.
During the WPA struggle he gave Walter Rodney distant support.. Even during the struggle he told supporters at a Kitty meeting that he would win a free and fair election.
Cheddi might have been a strong leader of the PPP, but he was a terrible leader of the country post 1992. He surrounded himself with square pegs in round holes and failed to institute changes to the Constitution. These were the two main concerns he had with the Burnham government and he failed in both.
I think Cheddi as a person had great vision for Guyana. He was not prepared to see Guyana raped by the multi-nationals. His economic policies while not very much different from Hoyte resulted in continued growth for Guyana during his Presidency. Unfortunately, he did not prepare his party to take over after him.
I have heard people claim that Cheddi deliberately undermined the Indians working class to keep them "stupid" so that he could control them. The cane cutters were used as an example. I have never seen this and I do not believe it.
His view of western politics could have been his downfall but why did the west accept him in 1992? Was it just because the cold war ended? Or was it because he became less radical?
VVP,
Your thoughts are no different from the majority of Indians. All of us grew up under Jagan and Indians saw him as a charismatic leader, despite his socialist views. Even when he was in the opposition he was still honest and admired by many.
His weakness, and Indian's biggest downfall in Guyana was his ideology. He was not only socialist, he was a Communist with strong ties to Stalinist Russia. As such, he spent his lifetime opposing America and the West, without an understanding that Guyana is in their backyard.
You may not have seen this written anywhere but you are smart enough to appreciate the fact that Cheddi is responsible for Indian's predicament in Guyana today. Instead of bringing Indians into the modern era, he kept them tied to a plantation (unlike Singapore's late leader) economy,, and they remain economically and politically docile and backward. Think about it, a socialist is generally a revolutionary who believes in the use of force to remove an unjust government. Cheddi accepted a socialist world view and the socialist economic plan but he disavowed its radical component. He admired Castro and Che but never thought of adopting their radical approach to change.Some would argue that this was the reason why the PPP feels comfortable being in the opposition. The are used to it.
Regarding post-1992: Yes Cheddi died too early. He left a set of losers and nincompoops to run the party. They ran the party and PPP-controlled overnment into the ground.
So I would say this: Cheddi and Burnham are both responsible for our problems today. Cheddi takes a bigger part of the blame because he established the first mass based party in Guyana. In addition, he was outmaneuvered by Burnham abd the west. His ideology was wrong for us...Indians are NOT socialists. Here is the other problem: his dogmatic alliance to the socialist world view preclude his from exploring other plans and options to solve Guyyana's race/ethnic problem. He felt race would disappear when the "working class" unite. In essence, Cheddi was a leader who lived at a different time and could not foresee the issues we face today, such as the West is not our enemy, race is more important than class, etc.
Finally, the other downfall of the PPP, which is responsible for it being in the dire situation it is in today is the fact that its democratic centralist top down party structufe does not allow criticism of the leadership. Over the years, the PPP has destroyed, expelled, isolated the intellectual elements within the party.
By the way, Rambarack's book on Rai, which I have been rereading recently, has a very good critique of Cheddi. I feel the book is more about Cheddi and his weaknesses.
Hope this clarifies some of the issues you raised. Good to see that you are reflecting on the homeland.
Regarding the last issue you raised RE:why did West accept him? You are right. The Cold War was over and the Bush administration could now tolerate a Cheddi Jagan government. In any case, the US was more than willing to accept a democratic government coming to power through free and fair elections. Besides, Guyana was not now in 1992 like Chile in 1973, where US had tremendous economic investment in the country that led them to remove a democratically elected government under Allende. By this time the world had changed and Cheddi was, in any case, not like a radical Fidel Castro. He had also indicated in newspaper interviews that he accepted an end to the Cold War.