OPINION: I agree with Bharrat Jagdeo: down with Marxist ideology; up with American money

Last Updated on Saturday, 18 November 2023, 8:52 by Denis Chabrol

by GHK Lall

Yet again, I find myself agreeing with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.  When the Commissar soft-pedals Marxism-Leninism and dunks it over to the PPP Congress, I recognize a political operator of rare acumen.  Quick aside -if PPP hardheads think I am playing their General Secretary, they may be onto something, for I also know through whom the road to riches run in Guyana.  For the record, Jagdeo can take his goodies and give them to his comrades, or stick them somewhere.  The VP doesn’t want to embarrass his comrades in the PPP old guard, so he lets down slowly and gently.  He puts the issue of guiding ideology into their hands, which is a sweet move.  Let them fight over that one, which is part paradox, part contradiction, and part irrelevancy.  In my head, there is more than a ‘hint’ from Jagdeo, as carried by Demerara Waves.  Marxism-Leninism is still a brick today around the PPP’s neck, but don’t include Dr. Jagdeo in any such conclusion.  Here are my reasons.

Bharat Jagdeo knows where he is, has aways had only one ideology: money; the more of it that circulates close to him, the stronger is his commitment.   When most Guyanese have a god to prostrate themselves before, brother Jagdeo has his own church, as dedicated to himself, and which he ensures is painted over frequently in American green.  He follows in the footsteps of his old heroes Mikhail, Boris, Vladimir, Deng, Xi, and others of that buccaneering class.  They have all showed their hands, and those are filled with the best of all worlds: Stalinist-Leninist total control aka democratic centralism married to freewheeling crony capitalist accumulations.  In Guyana, Dr. Jagdeo let others have their fill of Marxism-Leninism, while he busies himself filling up Exxon’s tankers and ExxonMobil gas stations. That’s the proven ticket to his version of worker’s (leader’s) paradise.  Considering its many returns to many people (none of them ordinary Guyanese people), petroleum production is always sure to ace the lumpen proletariat.  This is how the historical forces of Marx and Engels gave way to John D. Rockefeller, and that fine visiting gentleman by the name of Alistair Routledge.  Dialectical materialism may still have its disciples in the PPP, but not Bharrat Jagdeo who is all for a materialism of another kind.  Think Wall Street and good ole Yankee capitalism.  Nothing beats that, which could be confirmed by the aforementioned Mr. Routledge.

In this surprising development, everyone should appreciate that my brother Bharrat has a slim and shaky balance beam on which to walk [perform is the more appropriate verb].  Though he has cultivated the rare skill of speaking from both sides of his mouth at the same time, and before multiple audiences without garbling a syllable, he is wise enough not to pull that one with the people from Texas.  Also, please let no one overlook the new lady from Louisiana.  Though a relative unknown in this climate, she could start breathing fire soon, diplomatic tact or not.  Imagine if Vice President Jagdeo were to start gushing the usual Marxism-Leninism jargons that were so much a part of the PPP’s vocabulary until recently, how well that would go over in Duke Street.  Exxon’s people would wonder what they really have in Jagdeo, and whether Aubrey Norton is not a more reliable option for a local political partner.  For it is that same Duke Street that there is Exxon and there is Old Glory proudly fluttering from the ramparts of the building where all those Cubans line up almost daily.  The ghost of Castro comes to Kingston.

Think about this, fellow Guyanese: if Exxon’s Mr. Routledge were to hear another word about the people (Guyanese people), he is going to double over and toss his cookies.  In true capitalist form, Guyana would get the bill for the cleanup operations.  Talking about the rights of the Guyanese people, and about the rights of Exxon’s investors to a return on investment, sounds to me like a classic dichotomy.  As they say, oil and water don’t mix.  It is why Dr. Jagdeo sleekly so brightly about foreign investors, and return on capital invested.  He is not going anywhere near to ideology.  With Jagdeo’s washing his hands and carefully distancing himself from the teachings of Marxism-Leninism, it would be up to the Jaganites to state what they stand for: treacherously grabbing the money or sticking faithfully to ideology.  If anyone were to ask me, I would say they currently have both.  Nobody has, but I still deliver.

Here is a question: why is there even the merest whisper of Marxism-Leninism at a time like this in Guyana?  It is a time of profits and profiteers; time to shed the fascinations and obsessions with men who railed against capitalist vices, while fattening themselves off its delectable virtues.  Karl Marx used to hangout in Manchester.  England, not Moscow.  It is also worth remembering that talk about profits and Dr. Jagdeo is sure to be in the neighborhood.  Let us all get this straight: if Bharrat Jagdeo is a Marxist, then I am a White American Baptist, a Southern one.  In Guyana, money is the name of the game, and capitalism is the wave of the present.  I predict the tsunami of the future.  Come to Guyana, all ye who yearn for rich investment returns.  That doesn’t sound like Marx or Trotsky or Bulganin to me.  Dracula in Demerara sounds closer to the truth.