October 9, 2002

The Gang of 8 is fiddling while Guyana falls apart

Dear Editor:

The situation in our country is slowly and surely descending into a "Dante's inferno" in which the Guyanese people will suffer a hellish future if solutions are not found as soon as possible. The crime situation is now escalating into one of general insurrection, especially when one counts the casualties of our law enforcement forces. The majority of the civilian casualties are citizens of East Indian origin and this will bring more racial tensions in the country and will lead to a worsening political atmosphere. While our country continues its downward slide, we the people are seeing for ourselves the old saying: "while Rome burns the Emperor fiddles". And that is exactly the same situation we are faced with as Guyana slides into anarchy and chaos, Mr. Jagdeo and the Gang of 8 in Freedom House continues to "fiddle". While President Cheddi was in office until 1997, the country was on a course with a real captain at the helm of the PPP and the country. From the day that Dr. Jagan passed away, the hard line communists took over the PPP and the Government and from that day to now, the supporters of President Cheddi have been misled and misguided by this Gang of 8 who are slowly destroying everything Dr. Jagan Dr. Jagan really stood for.

Who in their right mind and who knew President Cheddi would ever have picked a political novice like Mr. Jagdeo for President and minister like Mr. Nadir or Mr. Ramsammy. No way! Not to mention the political dictatorship and the destruction of democracy within the PPP by the Gang of 8. Dr. Jagan believed in a democratic process in the PPP and always talked about the power of the "grass-roots". Sadly, under communist hard liners, the whole future of our country is at stake and we, the very grass-roots which was the foundation of the Party, have to take back control of President Cheddi's painstaking creation, the PPP.

The only way out of this catastrophe which is facing Guyana is to clean up our own house and put things in proper perspective in order to exert the meaningful influence the PPP has always had on our national political consciousness. It is exactly since 1997 when President Cheddi died that the leadership of the PPP have made terrible mistakes in the following areas: expanding the bureaucracy in Government with Party hacks and certain incompetent Civic individuals; not reaching out to form a real coalition government and bring a real political peace; leaving finances in the hands of Mr. Jagdeo who never had a real vision of modern development; compounding that mistake by making him President; destroying the concept of debate and free speech within the Party structure of the PPP while concurrently strengthening the hard-line communists who are the gang of 8; not paying attention to the real needs of the people of Guyana and that is why today Guyana is poorer and in more trouble than when Dr. Jagan was alive.

The political situation in Guyana needs to be addressed by a whole new relationship of the present constitution and the Parties which partake in our political culture. What we need is a whole new beginning and to put to a close the First Republic which was in fact our communist-socialist era since Independence to this day as will be seen in our constitution (communist and dictatorial) and the communist who run the Government today. We, the Guyanese people need a new Second Republic committed to a new and revamped constitutional framework geared to meet the needs of the very fabric of our society. A new Second Republic would address the needs of the people in politics by committing to the concept of, as President Cheddi said, "winner does not take all", and coalition governments would become the answer to our problems; a new Second republic would become the galvanizing force to turn our economy around by eliminating all communist influences from our development programmes and moving the country forward in a concerted effort to make the private sector the real engine of growth and to, as President Forbes Burnham said, "feed, clothe and house the nation'.

The concept of a Second Republic is not a new one as one can see if a history of France is studied. Our momentum as a nation has been seriously curtailed by our past connections to communists both inside and outside of our country. We, who have been always connected to the People's Progressive Party, must fight to reclaim that party from the communist Gang of 8 and move the country to the concept of a Second Republic. I am committed to the flushing out of the Gang of 8 and stand ready to see real changes in President Cheddi's Party. The people in that party who want new leadership must stand ready to demand that important change.

Yours faithfully,


Cheddi (Joey) Jagan, Jr