The government has no legal or moral case to try to reverse the lease granted to a committee to administer the affairs of Red House which houses the Cheddi Jagan Research Center.
The government has no legal case. There is valid legal contract and there are no legal grounds for the revocation of that contract.
The government also does not have a moral case. This is the basis of today’s column.
In the United States there are presidential libraries for each President. These are dedicated to preserving the works and documents of each President. These libraries were established with private and other non-Federal funds and are coordinated and supported by a non-profit organization and have their own support organizations. The libraries are supported also by the State.
The establishment therefore of a committee to administer Red House is not a peculiar development. It is based on a tried and tested model developed in the United States of America.
There has been too much fuss also over the price of the lease of Red House. This needs to be put into context.
Guyana gave one million acres of land, free of cost, to the Commonwealth in 1991 for sustainable development purposes. No one said then that Guyana should have charged a reasonable annual lease for this massive amount of land.
Yet when a State property is used for the archives and papers of a former President, it becomes an issue when there is a token leased charged. It is found objectionable to us to dedicate at a token cost the lease of a building dedicated to research on former President Cheddi Jagan but it is not objectionable to give away one million acres of land to the international community.
The PPPC has not been granted any lease to Red House. A committee comprising of persons, some of whom have had associations with the PPP, was formed to administer the Cheddi Jagan Research facility which is still State property. The PPP has no lease to Red House. A Committee does.
The formation of the Committee is not unusual. All over the world, such Foundations are formed to promote research and projects in the names of former Presidents. The State does support such committees. The real purpose however of having such committee formed is that donor and other persons find it more convenient to provide support to endowments, foundations and research institutes if it is administered by a non-state entity.
There is absolute merit in the establishment of a committee, be it partisan or not, to administer the affairs of Red House. This also makes practical sense because there are persons who will be inclined to give if they are approached by a non- government or even a partisan entity rather than by the state.
The government should seriously take a step backwards and try to appreciate why a committee was formed and why this committee obtained a lease for Red House. This is not confiscation of State property. This is a practical measure that was employed. The government’s threat to revoke the lease via Court action is therefore misguided.
Many years ago, the idea was floated that Red House should not be used as a Research Center for only one President. It was suggested that Red House should also be used as a Research center for Forbes Burnham. On the basis of seeking private funding, this makes little sense because there are many persons who would give monies to a Cheddi Jagan Research Center but would balk at having to give to a Center for both Jagan and Burnham. Similarly there are persons who would love to support a Center of Research for Burnham but would pull out if they knew that their monies were going to be used to support a center that also attends to the works of Jagan. That is the reality of the country and the world in which we live.
Burnham should have his own research center but not at Red House. The former Residence, now Castellani should be converted into a research center for Burnham and the art exhibits on display there should be relocated to a more central place. There are supporters of Forbes Burnham who will pour millions into research center for his works but they are not going to do so if that center is located in the same building as the research center for Cheddi Jagan. These same supporters will also be more likely to donate millions through a committee established to run the center rather than through the State.
