- slams PPP for staying silent
Days after former President Bharrat Jagdeo attempted to explain his Pradoville 2 mansion by drawing
Nadira Jagan-Brancier
comparison to the upscale New Haven, Bel Air neighbourhood of Dr. Cheddi Jagan, a daughter has slammed the ruling party for staying silent.
Yesterday, in a scathing letter in Kaieteur News, Nadira Jagan-Brancier described Jagdeo’s lifestyle as “opulent”.
The letter would continue to signal a growing divide between the current leaders of the People’s Progressive Party and the relatives of Dr. Jagan who helped found the party.
Jagan-Brancier did not even refer to Jagdeo as the former President. “I am extremely disappointed that Bharrat Jagdeo would try to compare his lifestyle to that of my parents, former Presidents Dr. Cheddi Jagan and Mrs. Janet Jagan, and defend his opulent lifestyle by pathetically claiming that my parents also lived in a large house in an affluent community. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
During a press conference last week at PPP’s headquarters at Freedom House, Robb Street, Jagdeo was asked about his sprawling mansion in the Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara area that he created. Several house lots went to mainly top Government officials and friends of Jagdeo.
Jagdeo said that Government Ministers do not have to live in logies (slave quarters) to prove that they are honest. He said that Dr. Jagan lived in the upscale Bel Air area but there were no questions about whether he was corrupt.
Bharrat Jagdeo
He said that Jagan’s abode was not typical of all Guyanese, but insisted that the area was a prime one.
In her letter, Jagan-Brancier drew reference to former PPP’s executive, Ralph Ramkarran, who in a recent piece defended the Jagans and their lifestyle.
“I would like to thank Ralph Ramkarran for writing about the matter in his recent article “Discordant Notes”. What Ralph wrote about my parents’ lifestyle and their house is all true and to the point.”
Ramkarran wrote that in the 1960s, Plantation Bel Air, as it was then known, was a poor community of mainly small artisans, farm and city labourers and subsistence cattle and vegetable farmers.
Ramkarran said that Jagan’s land, next door to where he was born, grew up and still live, was acquired for $2,000 in the early 1960s.
“This simple, modest but comfortable house was designed by my father and built in 1966. You can visit and see for yourself. At that time there were only a few houses in this area. All the homes that were built much later in this area were much larger and more elaborate, so that the current area is now considered an affluent neighborhood,” Jagan’s daughter said in the letter.
“My parents, as is well known, devoted and sacrificed their lives for the betterment of the people of Guyana. They did not use their position for personal gains, which would have been
very easy to do. Instead, due primarily to their high moral and ethical standards,
The Pradoville 2 mansion of Bharrat Jagdeo.
they chose to live a very simple and comfortable lifestyle.
“They did not lead an extravagant life. Even when they were both Presidents of Guyana they maintained the same simple lifestyle they had always lived before.”
She said that it was sad that no one, especially in the PPP leadership, has come forward to challenge the “false and misleading claims” that “Bharrat Jagdeo” has made against her parents, except for an “old and dear comrade and friend of my parents”– Ramkarran.
It was not the first time that Jagan’s daughter or his family has come out criticizing the PPP for straying away from the ideology of its founder.
In a forum back in April 2012, Jagan-Brancier said that her parents were probably the most incorruptible people; their honesty and integrity were of very high standards, but unfortunately do not exist in many of the leaders of the party and government.
She said that the current leaders of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and
The Bel Air home of the Jagans
Government lack “the very, very, very high moral standards” which her parents embodied when they were alive.
Jagan-Brancier had scolded the party for putting out platforms using her parents’ name— particularly her father’s— and not living up really and truly to what her parents had stood for. “It is not enough to go out there and make lovely speeches about who my parents were, what they did and the legacy that we’re carrying on”.
The daughter of the late leaders had pleaded with the PPP/C leaders and members to get back to the high and moral values. “If the leaders don’t show the moral values then people won’t do it, and your children won’t grow up with moral values. And if your families don’t show moral values, then society as a whole will lose that”.
It was only recently that Jagan-Brancier’s brother, Joey, reportedly said that while he mounted the PPP platform for the 2011 General and Regional Elections; he will not be doing so this time around.
Yesterday, General Secretary of the PPP, Clement Rohee, opted to remain silent on the statement by Jagan-Brancier, noting that his words have “heavy political weight”.
He also declined to comment on the possible impact of the statement of Jagan’s daughter, only saying that time will tell.
The statements by Jagan-Brancier would come as Guyana heads to early General Elections on May 11 after the ruling party faced a no-confidence vote late last year by the National Assembly, forcing President Donald Ramotar to prorogue Parliament.