Tossing the court order
Editorial
Stabroek News
May 13, 2004
In her column in the Weekend Mirror of May 12, 2004 Mrs Janet Jagan, former President, dealt with what has since become the famous incident, captured on television, of her throwing over her shoulder a court order that had been served on her by a marshal on that day in 1997 when she became president. Mrs Jagan wrote: "Do you wonder why I tossed the Court Order over my shoulder on the day I became President? The Court Order was useless as it prevented me from being sworn into office, but I had already been sworn in. It was another attempt, as in 1953, 1957, 1961, 1964 and all the rigged elections by the PNC to prevent the PPP from taking and/or holding office. I had no disrespect for the courts, but anger at yet another effort to prevent us from our right to office."
It is hard not to sympathise with her. The courts had proved singularly impotent to deal with the blatantly rigged elections in 1968, 1973, 1980 and 1985 that kept the PPP out of power. It was hard, given all that had happened over the years, for the PPP not to view the courts with jaundiced eyes.
In the same article, citing Dr Jagan's book The West on Trial she notes that the slogan 'Apan Jhaat' originated and was used by Daniel Debidin's United Farmers and Workers' Party in the 1953 elections. This has also unjustly been laid at the door of the PPP. She also denies that the PPP flaunted its victory after the 1961 elections in the motorcade from Berbice by abusing Afro-Guyanese. "This just never happened! It was a peaceful, joyful demonstration of goodwill, following what was a contentious elections. The British colonials had tried their best to prevent the PPP from winning by gerrymandering the boundaries of the constituencies against a PPP win. This was carried out by Sir Hugh Hallet, sent by the British colonial government as the sole boundary Commissioner and he introduced 35 constituencies for the 1961 elections. Dr Jagan cites an example of how the PPP suffered losses in the new boundaries. "Of the 9 constituencies in the county of Berbice, for example, the average number of persons in the 6 seats which we won was 17,639 as compared with the average figures of 12,109 for the three seats of New Amsterdam, Abary and Berbice river which were won by the opposition. Had the average been constant, we would have won perhaps one or possibly two more seats."
The PPP has undoubtedly been much maligned over the years. Because of its ideology, every effort was made to get it out and keep it out of power, by fair means and foul. Mrs Jagan and the party she helped to form have always had a moral case. The PPP won power democratically but the external powers and their internal allies were not prepared to accept a communist government.
Mrs Jagan has herself been vilified and demonised over the years. She was portrayed as the machiavellian schemer who converted Dr Jagan to Marxism-Leninism while he was a student in Chicago. Inevitably those who felt that the radical left policies of the party would spell ruin for the country had no time for her and indeed have never forgiven her for what they see as the damage done. She has had to bear the harshest criticisms over the years, never more so than when she ill-advisedly ran for the presidency in 1997 after the death of Dr Jagan.
Did the Jagans as Marxist-Leninists pose a threat to democracy in Guyana? The evidence suggests that that is not the case. They were able to win fair elections in 1957 and 1961. What Mrs Jagan, her late husband and other senior party ideologues have never been able to face up to, however, is that at least since the 1961 elections there has been a profound ambivalence at the heart of the party. While its radical ideology remains, at least in its constitution, it has been elected overwhelmingly by an ethnic Indian vote and though Dr and Mrs Jagan have never been racist, the party has in fact had to accommodate to and pander to its ethnic supporters. Thus the strange paradox that has perplexed many for so long of a Marxist party, now in reform mode, supported faithfully by an Indian vote, a large part of which has no sympathy at all for socialist principles. This is the contradiction at the heart of the PPP's politics which the leadership steadfastly refuses to recognise or accept.
Though now lacking her former energy and organisational skills, displayed in keeping the party together during the long years in the wilderness, Mrs Jagan retains her fighting spirit as is clear from her columns. One must hope that even her most unforgiving opponents can find the magnanimity to respect her lifelong commitment to Guyana, however misguided they may consider her policies to have been.