PPP says failed presidential ambitions behind Ramkarran’s attacks

-calls exit ‘inexplicable,’ ‘sudden’

Failed presidential ambitions and a quest to remain relevant are behind the “attacks” by former Speaker Ralph Ramkarran on the PPP, according to the party, which yesterday said that his exit from its ranks after nearly 50 years of membership was “inexplicable as it was sudden.”

“One can draw no other conclusion as to wonder whether we would have had to wait at least another five years of silence had he won the Party 2011 Presidential Candidate nomination, and possibly the Presidency, for the disclosures he is now making,” the PPP said yesterday, in its first detailed statement on Ramkarran’s recent writings on the party, including serious charges that the party’s leadership has been compromised by corrupt interests.

“His profound vitriol against leaders of the PPP makes one wonder why was this not exposed when he was one such leader and contesting for the Presidency in 2011.  Why was this aspect of his moral position not revealed during his bid for the Presidential candidacy?  In fact, why would one want to be a presidential candidate for a party he has now described in such disparaging terms and accused of such dastardly acts?” the party also questioned.

Ralph Ramkarran
Ralph Ramkarran

Ramkarran left the party last year after confrontations with leaders over his strong views on the extent of corruption in the country. After his departure, on his blog and in a column in the Sunday Stabroek he has attacked the party on corruption and a host of other grounds.

Several weeks ago he charged that Guyana would soon qualify as a “kleptocratic Republic” as the leadership of the party was beholden to a corrupt triumvirate of influential businessmen, contractors and bureaucrats. It was seen as the most serious attack on the party to date especially in light of the crucial upcoming congress of the party in early August.

He had also accused the party of departing from the ideals of Dr Jagan.

However, the PPP is linking Ramkarran’s criticism with his failed bids to be its presidential candidate for the 1997 and 2011 elections.
During the former, the party said he was not selected after what it described as “unacceptable revelations” although it added that it subsequently recognised “his fortitude in returning to active leadership after that personal reversal.”

Late former president Janet Jagan succeeded her late husband and party founder Dr Cheddi Jagan as the party’s presidential candidate at the 1997 polls.
The PPP recognised Ramkarran’s  significant role in the constitution reform process as well as House Speaker in the Eighth and Ninth Parliaments, during which it said he moderated “a workable level of tension” between the legislature and the executive.

However, according to the party, during Ramkarran’s tenure as speaker in the last Parliament, from 2006 to 2011, his presidential ambitions resurfaced and were clearly spelt out. It said he publicly strove to show that he was unique and different from other PPP members and definitely from its leadership of both the party and its government administration but his bid was again lost.

Noting that Ramkarran, like the other candidates, had to make a presentation and defend his bid for the post before his peers in the party’s leadership, the party said that his presentation did not reveal knowledge nor concern about levels of corruption that he now discloses. “In fact, corruption of government and party officials [were] not featured in the issues he was going to address were he to be elected as the President,” it said.

‘Inexplicable’

Just over a year ago, Ramkarran resigned from the party after his call for the government to tackle pervasive corruption led to unease among other party executives.
Following a fiery meeting with party leaders, he said “further participation in the activities of the PPP would be a challenge.”

However, the party said yesterday that his departure “was inexplicable as it was sudden.” It said, “One day, at an Executive meeting, feigning great intolerance, he walked out and resigned.  His resignation was re-affirmed as efforts by party leaders to reverse the outcome were rudely rebuffed.”

The party also charged that since Ramkarran’s departure from active politics and from the ranks of its leadership, he has done his utmost to remain relevant.  “Historical recall has become his forte,” it said, while noting that the history of politics is replete with “hind-sighters.”

“Guyana is no different. Our historical landscape is strewn with their political carcasses. Their evolution is standard, a career of long standing service and commitment, terminally interrupted by a failure to achieve some end,” the party said.

Once on the outside, it added, these individuals turn their attacks on their former comrades. “Mr. Ramkarran is following this time tested trajectory. Unlike many others, in his exercise he makes no pretense about clearing his name, justifying his role [or] easing his conscience,” it further said.

Accusing Ramkarran of being engaged in warfare, “always with the threat of more to come,” the party said that having discovered that he has so much to share about his experiences and knowledge about the PPP and government, he “portrays himself as a wronged person in order to justify his efforts at leaking dreadful secrets of his political past.”

The PPP added that since his veneer has been lifted,  it was certain that he will use “the ample time he has on his hands to regale Guyana with some more high points of his long association with the party. “So we shall anticipate more of his recent disclosures with interest,” it added.

In his weekly Conversation Tree columns, published on his blog and by the Sunday Stabroek, Ramkarran has said that since the last elections, several revelations have emerged of corrupt, and even potentially criminal, activities by persons currently or previously associated with the PPP and who have friends in the leadership or access thereto. “Corruption has become so pervasive that it is no longer possible to keep the evidence away from the press and the police. And most important, none of them have come to light as a result of any action initiated by the government without prior exposure,” he said adding that it is now clear that the adamancy of the government and the PPP in refusing to acknowledge the level of corruption in the society, and to do something about it, is linked to where the corruption is located.

He has also said that the party is no longer motivated by working class ideology although it still clings to its historical connections.