Dear Editor,
PPP veteran, Mr Moses Nagamootoo’s publicly expressed aversion to the ‘state sponsorship’ of the PPP General Secretary as the party’s presidential candidate comes hard on the heels of another party veteran, Mr Ralph Ramkarran’s inadvertent public indictment of the Jagdeo administration when he said if, as the party’s candidate, he becomes President, he will make corruption one of the first three areas he will tackle.
These apparent challenges to the President, though consistent with the norms of disagreement among leaders in a democratic party, point to a growing rift at the party leadership level on the issue of succession planning, and it harks back to a somewhat similar problem that arose after Dr Cheddi Jagan died in 1997.
He did not name a successor for the party or the government before he died, but Mrs Janet Jagan returned to Guyana with a note purportedly scribbled by Dr Jagan bequeathing party leadership to her. When an impasse reportedly arose among party leaders over the initial choice (said to be Mr Ramkarran) to succeed her husband as President, she assumed the presidency and Mr Bharrat Jagdeo was named to succeed her in the event she had to step down.
When she stepped down and Mr Jagdeo took over the presidency, he was not named the party leader, even though, traditionally, the party leader is the president/presidential candidate. The leadership post of the party fell to General Secretary, Mr Donald Ramotar, and when Mrs Jagan died she, too, did not leave a clear leadership succession plan in place.
Logic says that since Mr Ramotar is the de facto party leader, he would automatically be the shoo-in candidate for 2011, but based on the rumblings from Messrs Nagamootoo and Ramkarran, that logic is meritless. Still, where is the logic in neither Jagan leaving a clear leadership succession plan behind, like the PNC did with Burnham, Hoyte and Corbin, (though Corbin is bucking tradition by being party leader but not presidential candidate)?
While I am tempted to think it may have been the Jagans’ way of allowing party leaders to evolve on their own, I have to admit what is playing out today is making the President and other PPP leaders look publicly awkward in their bid for the coveted post of the party’s presidential candidacy. And if there is any PPP leader or veteran who should recognize what is happening here, it is Mr Nagamootoo, but can he organize with like minds in the party to avert a repeat of 1997 when a succession plan hit a road bump and the alleged preferred choice was replaced by a compromise candidate?
Allegedly shut out from being Dr Jagan’s successor in 1997 and then denied resumption of his cabinet appointment after returning from studying law at UWI, Mr Nagamootoo told a gathering of PPP supporters in the Bronx in January 2005 that he will contest the party’s presidential candidacy, even though he knew the President was going to seek a second full term. The bad blood between the two was quite obvious, but he never did contend.
Though he now appears to have made up with the party leadership, if not with the President, his latest remarks appear to reflect his continued struggle with the party leadership even if he has supporters in the party. But does he really think he has a fighting chance to become his party’s choice for the presidency in 2011, or has he really settled on playing the role of spoiler in any Jagdeo-Ramotar plot?
My interest in this latest development does not reflect a sudden interest in the political welfare of the PPP, per se, but the nation. If elections are held as scheduled in 2011 and Guyanese vote along racial lines again, then Guyana just cannot afford to have the PPP playing Russian roulette with the nation’s future again. Just look at the huge mess created in the government on this PPP’s compromised candidates watch in the last eleven years, and all because the party lacked a clear succession plan supported by its leaders.
That this same compromise candidate may now be backing someone of his preference, but who does not appear to have the full backing of other party leaders, may lend credence to the belief that the mess in government will simply be perpetuated, because the more it seems impossible for this President to easily walk away in 2011 or not at least have a direct say in the next government.
What is becoming increasingly clear, nevertheless, is that by their public statements, neither Messrs Nagamootoo nor Ramkarran fit the profile of persons with whom this current President will be comfortable as his successor, and so we may be looking at the making of an internal power struggle for both the party and the party’s candidate. And it may be a good or bad thing for the party and the nation, depending on the outcome of the power struggle.
The closing question is, if there is indeed ‘state sponsorship’ of the PPP General Secretary, does either Messrs Nagamootoo or Ramkarran have enough solid support in the party to stop the President and the General Secretary?
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
