In 2012, during the memorial service for her mother, Jagan-Brancier said that the high standards of her parents are not seen in the current PPP leadership. “My parents… [were] probably the most incorruptible people you would ever find; their honesty and integrity were of very high standards that unfortunately do not exist, or I don’t see it in many of the leaders of the party and of the government,” she said to loud applause from those present at the event organized by the party’s women’s arm, the Women Progressive Organisation (WPO).
Jagan-Brancier had urged those who were gathered to visit her parent’s Bel Air house which is now a heritage site and is open to the public, to see how humbly they lived compared to how government officials live at present. “I really encourage people to go in Bel Air and see the house where they lived because they lived a very simple life; they didn’t have a big ostentatious house that you see nowadays with government officials, party officials, which is a very sad thing, I think personally,” she said.
She went on to say that the party puts out a platform that says, “Cheddi Jagan our living guide,” but that it is not enough to “go out there and say lovely speeches about who my parents were, what they did and the legacy that we are carrying on.
“To me the most important point [is that]… my parents had very, very, very high moral…standards [and] this I find is very lacking in many of the leaders.” She emphasised that her parents’ honesty and integrity were of very high standards that do not exist in many of the leaders of the party and of the government. She had said that “certain elements” of the party have “moved away from these very, very important values that held the party together and that makes the PPP what it is.
