Synopsis
In 1950, Dr Cheddi Jagan began a campaign to transform British Guiana, South America, into a Marxist state, allied with the USSR in the growing Cold War. His failure and the flight of some 500,000 people to North America and Britain are almost forgotten tragedies even among that Diaspora. The Indelible Red Stain, a two-volume blockbuster by Guyanese doctor and political insider, Dr Mohan Ragbeer, tells the story in a masterly way and provides the key to understanding the ruin of Guiana, its bloody race war, and the massive exodus. Ram Jagessar, a Toronto historian, writes, "Dr Mohan Ragbeer writes brilliantly in a style seldom seen from the Caribbean, with encyclopaedic knowledge of history, culture, medicine, forestry, sociology and more, coupled with an elephantine memory of events and discussions of the 1950s and 1960s." The background is a dangerous river trip in 1961 into remote forests by a multiracial forensic team to investigate a murder, by itself an intriguing tale, well worth the read. The perils mirror those of the country's political journey to independence; witnesses sadly tell of the usurpation of a moderate political and economic agenda by Dr Jagan and his greedy and dictatorial comrade, Mr Forbes Burnham, when they lead the first self-rule government and lose by pursuing an unrealistic goal, against sage advice. They split and Mr Burnham courts the CIA, which ensures Dr Jagan's defeat, shattering the dreams, hopes and lives of his followers, who believed his notion of deliverance. The historical facts and the roles of international agencies-MI5, CIA, KGB et al. are well-known, but this book corrects errors from intimate insider knowledge of the main characters and events; it exposes Jagan’s ineptness in government and his role in Burnham's electoral victories that led to the ruin of Guyana and the sad fate of its people. Jagessar wrote, "Dr Ragbeer gives us first-hand and witnessed accounts of new material, particularly discussions with businessmen and farmers—Jagan’s major financiers—whose sage and practical plans would have realised a land of plenty. He agreed privately but ignored and even lambasted them publicly as exploiters!" He remained pro-USSR even as the CIA plotted his overthrow with Burnham to avoid another Cuba in the Americas. "Far from being a martyr betrayed by racists and imperialists, a view that has become an industry, Jagan is shown as a failure without original ideas, a poor judge of people, who unwisely rejected economic help from Guyanese and swallowed Moscow’s fanciful promises, blindly believing in Soviet power and reach. The Indelible Red Stain forces us to ask tough questions: what did Jagan really achieve? How does he compare with his contemporaries? The answers will no doubt stain his hallowed reputation. “The book is a brutally honest critique of Jagan’s place in history, and a caution that aspiring nations must be vigilant and critical of those who promise heaven. While personally honest, unlike most politicians, Jagan’s bungling of his many chances to lead a country to prosperity was the shock that uprooted half a million lives. The book will probably anger Jagan’s minions, but they must face the fact of his ineptness and misuse of his support that paved the way for Burnham, who duped the CIA to make him win amid the terrors of fire and blood. The book is long but easy to read and gracefully written, with anecdotes, life stories, facts and comments by friends and critics of the two men. It is a riveting read aimed to inform host nations, diasporal Guyanese, Caribbean peoples and all those who need to see how easy it is to destroy a nation while pretending to help it. It is fascinating and painful to see a land of promise destroyed, how a tropical paradise can become paradise lost. Mohan Ragbeer has put 50 years of his life into creating this book; it is well worth the wait." This second edition includes an Index and Bibliography.
About the Author
Dr Mohan Ragbeer is a physician and health planner–with degrees from the University of London and Royal Colleges in the United Kingdom and Canada, a writer, geographer, historian, anthropologist, photographer–a polymath, in fact. He recently retired from the practice of Geriatrics in Hamilton, Canada, following 19 years as a professor and medical educator at McMaster University, Hamilton, and thirteen years at the Medical Faculty, University of the West Indies (UWI), Jamaica, four as the Faculty’s first full-time Dean. He served international bodies, including the Pan-American Federation of Associations of Medical Schools, which allowed him to learn much about the Americas. He travelled widely, on study and work tours in Asia and Africa, including two years in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He has consulted for several Foundations, Governments and educational institutions in three continents, receiving many honours and awards, including his most prized: an Honourary Membership of the Barama Caribs of Guyana, with bow and arrow. He was born in British Guiana (BG) in a farming family, the seventh of eight children. His early post-secondary education prepared him for a diplomatic career, but he switched to Medicine, as his late father had wished. After completing postgraduate training in Surgery, General Medicine and Pathology, he worked for two years with the BG government at the turbulent time whose history and antecedents are the stuff of this book. He had close personal and family associations with key political leaders in BG. He remained friendly with Dr Jagan, the Premier, despite disagreeing with his policy for an independent Guiana and choice of the USSR in the Cold War, preferring the moderate economic and social ideas of his brother-in-law, sister and other far-seeing persons that could have prevented the chaos, which enveloped BG as the Cold War raged and the CIA, fresh from its failures in Cuba, ensured Burnham’s take-over, and his later dictatorship and ruin of independent Guyana. The flight of nearly half the country’s population and the creation of a large Guyanese Diaspora in North America and the United Kingdom followed. Besides writing on medical topics, Dr Ragbeer has published a book on India and for many years a regular op-ed column on current affairs for the IC World paper, Toronto, and other media, and has unpublished work in prose and poetry. He has six children from two marriages.
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