Cheddi Bradlaugh Jagan is the only son of Cheddi and Janet Jagan

DURING cardiac care I had limited access to current news, but I was shown a TV clip with Joey Jagan indicting the former government with corruption in the context of a defence of his late father, President Cheddi Jagan, for his legacy of being “lean and clean”. He couldn’t see the PPP winning elections any time soon, and he told Jagdeo bluntly, “your time is up!”
I started to read comments on Joey’s interview, but soon realised that the Freedom House back-room pack had been let loose, literally to devour him.

PROPAGANDA WOLF-PACK
It would have been so much better if Joey was engaged on his ideas on a possible future government of national unity, in which the PPP could play a role, instead of being sledge-hammered and heaped with cheap insults. But I suspect that the propaganda wolf-pack descended upon him not so much for saying that the PPP could not win the 2020 elections, or any other future elections under the present Jagdeo leadership. They wanted to tear him apart for characterising the Jagdeo-led government as corrupt, and graphically caricaturing that by using a single odious word: PRADOVILLE.

Cheddi Bradlaugh Jagan is the only son of Cheddi and Janet Jagan, both of whom had served as Executive Presidents of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. That should make him proud, though he didn’t share his parents’ ideological platform. Joey, as he is widely known, is controversial and would pronounce on matters openly and frankly. On occasions, he had criticised me in language that was by no means flattering, but I never held that against him. I had witnessed his unpredictable disposition, the more dramatic was during his swearing-in as a Member of Parliament. He had unfurled a U.S. dollar note, and proclaimed, “God bless America!”

CORRUPTION SYNDROME
But he was on mark when he highlighted the corruption syndrome in which Guyana and other countries had been caught after his father died. It was not surprising that on the day Guyana was observing the centenary of the birth of Cheddi Jagan, Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kucznski resigned after a corruption scandal rocked this South American nation. The former World Bank economist was facing an impeachment motion for “permanent moral incapacity”, a stylistic term for political corruption. A former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala is awaiting trial for receiving illegal campaign funds, whilst former president Alberto Fujimori, who was jailed for sleaze, was given a presidential pardon.

Next door in Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff is facing impeachment proceedings which has forced her to resign, while her predecessor, the once popular Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva lost his bid before the Appeal Court to reverse his conviction on graft charges. And, more recently, former president of France Nicolas Sarkozy was arrested on bribery charges that went back over 10 years ago.

PHANTOM WRITERS
The phantom writers on social media who were quick to pounce on Joey need to understand that it was the glaring acts of corruption that brought the once popular PPP government down. The leaders who were responsible for that are not immune from criticisms or prosecution, as corrupt former presidents all over the world are facing the music for past crimes. Guyana would not be the only country that could be allowed to drag the carpet over unjust enrichment by public officials while in office.

The issue of corruption was what brought Joey Jagan to the coalition and more especially to David Granger and I when we met in New Jersey before the May 2015 elections. He asked for nothing; he expected nothing. He wanted to see the back of the pack that had disgraced his father and his party.

That image of corruption had hurt many former party loyalists. I remember when passing through Cotton Tree, I had seen a placard on a lamp post, with a cynical slogan on which corruption was spelt with three Ps – corruPPPtion, which clearly indicted the PPP in its own stronghold.

Joey’s symbol of that “corruPPPtion” is “Pradoville”, which he sees as a vulgar display of ostentatious “Cadillac-style living” in what he described as a “donkey-cart economy”.
It may be unrealistic of me to hope that Guyana evolves a culture of new politics, or could be visited by a fresh wind of positive political engagement. The old, toxic “cuss-down, buse-down” politics is neither healthy nor amusing. We need to debate ideas, not trade insults.

Brad laugh is a good middle name for Joey