Whenever Guyana’s independence is discussed, one name will forever be mentioned, the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan, the country’s first Indian President.
The contributions of the great leader will eternally be honoured and remembered as his dedication to fight to gain his country’s independence from the rulership of the British, and the aiding in the overall development of Guyana can never go unnoticed. Despite continuous setbacks, Dr. Jagan never lost hope and remained steadfast in his aim to make Guyana a better place.
Dr. Jagan was born on March 22, 1918 in a rural Guyanese village called Port Mourant, on a sugar plantation. During his early life his parents, though indentured labourers, struggled to ensure that he and his siblings would not remain on a plantation like them, and as such, they ensured they were committed to their studies. Little did his parents know they were shaping a man who would one day be referred to as the father of the nation.
After attending primary school in his home village, Dr. Jagan started to attend Queen’s College at the age of 15, the leading boys’ school at that time, in the country. He graduated two years after passing the school certificate examinations. He then went on to Washington DC, to further his studies.
His two years in Washington DC doing his pre-med studies opened his eyes to the condition of African Americans and the realities of legally enforced segregation in the south. He then moved to Chicago, where he studied dentistry at Northwestern University and social sciences during evenings at the YMCA College, where the writings of socialist thinkers broadened his education.
Dr. Jagan also followed, closely, the struggle of the Indian independence movement and the work of Gandhi, which had an influence on his political thought. He qualified as a dentist in 1942 by which time he met his wife, Janet Rosenberg, a student-nurse living in Chicago. Neither of their families approved of their marriage in August 1943.
He returned to Guyana in October 1943 and Janet followed him a few months later. The couple had two children: Cheddi Joey Jagan Jr. and Nadira Jagan, who in turn produced five children.
In Guyana, Dr. Jagan, now 25 years of age, set up his dental practice in Georgetown with his wife as his assistant. While practising dentistry he felt the need to join a socio-political group aimed at uplifting the welfare of the ordinary people, since he was concerned with the overall economic and social conditions of the people and saw the need for political change.
At first he associated himself with the British Guiana East Indian Association. However, he soon left this organisation after he realised that it looked after the interest of Indian businessmen and landlords, and had little or no interested in tackling problems of the ordinary Indians.
In 1945, Dr. Jagan joined the Man Power Citizens’ Association (MPCA), the first and largest trade union in the country for sugar estate workers. Soon after, he became its treasurer. He objected to the high allowances paid to union leaders from the union funds and as such, the leadership was not friendly towards him.
This led Dr. Jagan to found the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) in 1946 with his wife and two young trade unionists, Jocelyn Hubbard and Ashton Chase.
In 1947, Jagan contested as an independent and won a seat in the Legislative Council. His experiences confirmed his belief that major changes were necessary, and in 1950 he and his political associates in the PAC formed the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), the first modern mass party in Guyana.
The legacy of slavery and indentured immigration had created a population division between Africans and East Indians. The PPP tried to unite these two groups within a radical anti-colonialist party and, in an attempt to foster unity, asked Forbes Burnham, an Afro-Guyanese lawyer recently returned from England, to become chairman with Jagan as leader.
In the first elections under adult suffrage in 1953, the PPP, with a manifesto appealing to a broad base of Guyanese society, won easily.
Jagan’s first term in office lasted only 133 days, from the opening of parliament of May 30, to the suspension of the constitution by the British on October 9 under pressure from the United States, which feared a Communist beachhead in South America.
Rumours that Jagan was forging ties with the Soviet Union caused the British government to send troops to then-British Guiana in a 1953 intervention. Restrictions were placed on leaders of the PPP, many of whom were imprisoned. Jagan himself was imprisoned for refusing to obey an order restricting him to Georgetown between April 1954 and 1957.
For violating that order, he was jailed for five months in 1954.
It was while the British ruled Guyana with the aid of an Interim Government that Burnham made a bid to seize the leadership of the PPP from Jagan. He founded the People’s National Congress (PNC) party in 1957, helped by the British who supported what they believed were his more moderate politics.
Dr. Jagan won again in 1957 and 1961 elections and embarked on welfare programmes in health, education and housing. These programmes were highly popular and they had an immediate effect on improving the standard of living of the people.
By this time, too, the PPP stepped up its campaign for political independence of Guyana. After the 1961 elections, Jagan, now the first Premier of Guyana, believed that the British would honour a commitment to allow the victor to lead the country to independence. However, two things prevented this: by 1961 the PPP had been identified as the communist party by the West in contrast to the socialist PNC. As such, the US, after the Cuban revolution, was alarmed by Jagan and his party.
Also, by 1961, the anti-Jagan forces had made it clear that they were not prepared to let Jagan lead an independent Guyana. The opposition forces were provided with covert and overt support by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the effort to overthrow Jagan and his PPP Government.
From early 1962 to mid-1964 strikes, riots and murderous political and ethnic conflict set Guyanese against Guyanese, postponing independence. British troops returned once more to help control the disturbances. Then in 1963, at a constitutional conference in London, following the orders of the US Government changed the electoral system from first-past-the-post to proportional representation for the 1964 elections. At the government level they also made known their support for Burnham.
Elections were ordered for 1964 by the British who reneged on a previous agreement to grant independence before any further elections. The change was designed to keep Jagan and the PPP out of office. When independence came in 1966, Jagan was leader of the opposition.
It was until October 5, 1992 the first free and fair elections since 1964, that he was elected president of Guyana, ending 28 consecutive years of rule by the People’s National Congress party. Exactly 39 years after he had first been removed from office, Cheddi Jagan was sworn in as President of Guyana on October 9, 1992. Dr. Jagan suffered a heart attack on February 14, 1997 but despite treatment at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, he died there on March 6, 1997.
He was the true hero of the nation who died too soon; a man, who always represented the people and showed genuine concern for their problems. Dr. Jagan proved that he was not interested in political power but was more interested in serving the people.
He fought a battle to represent the people in parliament, especially at the grass-root level. Eighteen years after his death, his legacy still lives on strongly, and his reputation remains intact. This man remains Guyana’s greatest leader to this day.