Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines honours President Jagdeo
President Bharrat Jagdeo has been my friend for about eleven years; of course I have known him way before as a young activist in the People’s Progressive Party under Dr Jagan. Bharrat is a man of towering intellect possessed of a people-centred vision as befits a Caribbean visionary.
His work as an integrationist in the region has been outstanding. Indeed, when the history of this period is written, Bharrat Jagdeo’s name would be revered and would acquire iconic status as the foremost integrationist. He placed on the agenda, the Jagdeo initiative’s agenda in the area of agriculture, which agenda has informed the development of agriculture across the region. This agenda is still to be completely accomplished but he has set us on the path, he has provided the leadership in that area.
Bharrat Jagdeo is a Caribbean nationalist I have seen him close-up at meetings with President Bush for example when I was Chairman of Caricom. Meetings in which Bharrat took issue with President Bush in relation to Caricom’s stance with Cuba; he was forthright, principled and his arguments were cogent. He didn’t persuade President Bush to alter his position, but you saw at work a man who has been in the long line of distinguished Caribbean leaders including Michael Manley, his father Norman Manley, Eric Williams, Robert Milton Cato and yes, Cheddi Jagan of Guyana.
I am hopeful that we would get the opportunity here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines to welcome Bharrat after he demits the presidency, so that we would be able to show him our love and appreciation. Bharrat is a gentle soul; he loves people. He has no discriminatory bone in his body based on race, ethnicity, class, creed or political opinions. He has been a child of our Caribbean civilisation fit to receive and transmit universal culture but with a Caribbean peculiarity. His contributions to Guyana have been immense but others would speak more authoritatively on that.
I simply want to hail him as a great Caribbean leader and outstanding integrationist, who has looked at alternatives facing us and has often taken that which is not initially popular but which he pushes and wins the argument and wins the opinion. I shall be saying this ages and ages hence: two roads diverged in the woods and Bharrat Jagdeo chose the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.
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