The late former President of Guyana, Dr. Cheddi Jagan has left the governments and people of the Caribbean as well as the American hemisphere with a number of useful ideas and with challenges to work for meaningful integration, whether economic or political, or both.
Guyana's Ambassador to Venezuela, Dr Odeen Ishmael expressed this assessment of Dr Jagan's legacy in presenting a lecture on "Cheddi Jagan's Vision for Regional and Hemispheric Integration" last Monday at the Cheddi Jagan Research Institute, High Street, Kingston.
Ambassador Ishmael noted that acclaimed American film star Danny Glover is among persons from all walks of life in many parts of the world who regard the late Dr Jagan as the leader who had inspired the anti-colonial and pro-democracy struggle in the Caribbean region, while working to build solidarity between the English-speaking Caribbean and the Latin American countries.
The ruling PPP observed a month of activities this month in tribute to their late party leader Dr Jagan, who passed away on March 16, 1997.
Jagan's socialist-oriented outlook made him a natural internationalist, Ishmael said. He began analyzing situations in Guyana and saw a clear linkage with developing situations in the Caribbean, the countries of the Americas and the world at large.
He was also vocal in his support for West Indian unity and backed the decisions of the 1943 Montego Bay conference, which determined how the proposed West Indian Federation should be shaped and developed.
The Montego Bay agreement was discarded however when the federation was established in 1958 without the participation of Guyana, Belize and The Bahamas. The PPP had decided that entry into the federation would be based on the decision of a referendum and Dr Jagan had demanded that the unit territories had to be self-governing to enable the federation to survive. The federation, as expected, broke up within four years.
With regard to Latin American solidarity, Jagan had relied on support from the hemisphere during his struggle for Guyana's independence. On December 30, 1959 he penned a letter to leaders of political parties, trade unions and various organizations all over the world soliciting support for, and solidarity with, Guyana's fight for independence.
Latin America was specially targeted and some Latin American governments later spoke up in support of Guyana's independence when the UN Committee on Decoloni-sation debated a resolution after Dr Jagan had addressed that body in December 1961.
As part of Jagan's political activism in the Latin America arena, he was a vocal participant in the Inter-American Conferences, the second of which in Caracas in May 1960 passed a resolution supporting independence for Guyana.
Jagan often promoted Latin American solidarity and integration at these conferences. He contended then that Latin Americans were not only interested in general terms about freedom and democracy but above all they wanted economic democracy and a concentrated fight against poverty. Certainly, Ishmael noted, the situation in Latin America has not changed much after nearly four decades.
According to Ishmael, the early 1960s were particularly difficult for the first PPP Government, with Cold War hysteria preventing close political working relations between Dr Jagan and his Caribbean counterparts.
He also came under attack from many quarters in the Caribbean for pulling back financial support for the University of the West Indies (UWI) and for establishing the University of Guyana (UG) in 1963. Dr Jagan showed however that because of the high expenses involved only relatively few Guyanese were being educated at the UWI, despite the substantial funds the government was giving to the institution.
He pointed out that a much greater number of Guyanese would have the opportunity of obtaining their degrees at UG at a much lower cost. This has proven to be so, and interestingly, other Caribbean countries have been benefiting immensely from UG since many of its graduates dispense their skills and knowledge in all parts of the sub-region, Ishmael observed.
Despite being shunned by Caribbean leaders in the 1968-1992 period, Dr Jagan did not waste time to admonish them when he won the Presidency in October 1992. But later that month at the Caricom summit in Trinidad he lectured them about the necessity of expanding the integration movement in the sub-region.
He proposed: "We have to expand the frontiers of our vision and if needs be, have the courage to reform and/or change what exists."
He also spoke about the quality of leadership that the Caribbean needed: "Our primary aim must be the eradication of poverty. We must set our face sternly against corruption and extravagance. We cannot have Cadillac-style living with donkey cart economies. Our leaders must set the example of democratic, accountable, clean and lean governance and efficient administration."
Speaking at UWI in 1994 he insisted that Caribbean unity must be nurtured for the building up to what he called a Union of West Indian States. "After all," he said, "the basic ingredients of unity - affinities of culture and kinship - are present among us all and are strongly felt. We must nurture the real distinctiveness of West Indian society by creating meaningful confidence and esteem - building markets of unity and citizenship..."
Dr Jagan again took up the challenge of hemispheric integration at the First Summit of the Americas in Miami during December 1994. He suggested the establishment of an American Volunteer Development Corps to combat the brain drain and shortage of skills, administrative incapacity and the high costs of advisers and consultants. The volunteers could be organised using the US Peace Corps model.
He also suggested the formation of a high level working group on debt reform and a Forest Monitoring and Manage-ment Training Fund for Sustainable Development aimed at assisting countries like Guyana. Additionally he called for the Caribbean Sea to be a pollution-free zone and suggested December 11 should be celebrated annually as the Day of the Americas.
He also forcefully promoted the idea of Guyana being a bridge for an economic linkage between Caricom and South America, with infrastructural links such as the Guyana-Brazil Road and the Guyana-Suriname ferry. He thought integration of Guyana with the rest of South America could be practically approached through education by getting young children to learn Spanish as a second language. And knowing Spanish and Portuguese would be important as Guyana prepares to enter the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), Ismael remarked.
Meanwhile, Jagan posited as far back as 1995 that free trade agreements between various economic sub-regions such as Mercosur, the Andean Group, Caricom and NAFTA, can eventually evolve into a strong FTAA.
Though he agreed multilateral negotiations among the 34 participating countries could produce a good result, he supported the idea of a joint negotiating team for Caricom to deal with the various issues, and this idea, propagated by other Caribbean leaders, resulted in the establishment of the Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM). The RNM also deals with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group negotiations.
Democracy as integration tool
The overriding theme of Jagan's views on integration within the hemisphere was that of expanding democracy. And he was adamant that democracy could not be sustained if the problem of poverty was not tackled, Ishmael pointed out.
The Ambassador in wrapping up his lecture, spoke about the problems facing democracy in the hemisphere, noting that the recent "displays of discontent" which have lead to the ouster of democratically elected leaders in Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador, in Venezuela during a 24-hour period two years ago and Haiti a few weeks ago, "should not be allowed to degenerate to a stage where the street protests are recognized as the alternative to a democratically elected government."
He said further that, "One has to be circumspect in supporting such a development, since there is no limit to such actions. This is how democracy can go into retrogression."
Political leaders must educate their people on the way forward through public discussions and in their writings by expressing their ideas and opinions on issues to provide the necessary guidance. He added that Dr Jagan was a giant in this regard, for he was an avid thinker and prolific writer.