Dear Editor,
My first encounter with Khemraj Ramjattan was at an Accabre class in 1980 at the GAWU building on Regent Street. Praks was home on holiday from Barbados, where he was completing his law studies at the Cave Hill Campus. I remember clearly our disagreement over a discussion on labour power and productivity, when I argued that he needed to read between the lines. His position then (and ever since) was that he never read between the lines. Our lives have been intertwined ever since, particularly in political/sports endeavours. We both went on to become young leaders, pivotal to the supporting/enabling role of the PYO to the cause of the PPP’s rise to power in 1992. We were both Jaganites and neither of us was socialist trained. Two like-minded friends involved with us were Rohan Singh, then head of the PYO, now Head of the Presidential Guard, and Annan Boodram, now a highly successful educator, journalist and social activist in New York City. In large measure, I was only able to achieve the tremendous successes in my work, both in the PYO and the PPP, due to the financial and personal backing of Praks.
Praks’s generosity knew no bounds; a few examples would suffice. Recently, I was having a telephone conversation with Danny Rampersaud, a friend of long standing, who now lives and works in Canada. Danny had suffered a horrendous accident by Queens College in 1994 and virtually lost his sight as a result. At the time, my wife and I rendered all the assistance we could through our contacts at the Public Hospital, GT. Praks, who knew of our friendship and Danny’s contribution to our fight for free and fair elections in 1992, provided (unrequested) financial support to Danny for the entire period.
Unfortunately, Danny was unable to earn his graduate salary after his debilitating injury. He told me that Praks continued to send him financial support for a prolonged period after he migrated to Canada, and that for this he was eternally grateful. He also emphasized that Praks never asked him back for a dime. As to myself, I was an underpaid political organizer of the PPP in Greater Georgetown from 1989 to 1993, when I resigned (for the fourth time. Donald Ramotar refused to accept my resignation. Everyone, he said, wanted me to stay on as organiser, (to pull the PPP donkey cart).
I stayed on with the PPP as a volunteer organiser until 1996, when I resigned altogether, as I was not even allowed to speak on issues within the PPP in GT, particularly issues about Georgetown and national security, in tandem with Ramjattan. Anyhow, for the entire period after my resignation, from 1993 to 1997, Ramjattan continued to gave me a monthly stipend of G$7,000. This was supposed to be supplemented by two other friends who agreed to this arrangement, so that I could continue to organise. But the other two never paid up. Praks came every month end, religiously, during this period, when others were afraid to be seen in my company or at my home in Bel Air. And he always came with his entire family. After I was assigned to the south GT constituencies for the 1992 elections, Praks volunteered to work with me in Albouystown/La Penitence, when the rest of PPP/C candidates were cowering in their corners. Sometimes it was Ramjattan and Peters, standing alone, when PPP/C public meetings were scheduled to start. Most times, to avoid embarrassment, the two of us would substitute as chairman/first public speaker, to give the scheduled speakers time to present their reluctant selves at these public meetings.
Khemraj Ramjattan is a most rounded individual. He was certainly one of the most talented individuals in the PPP, and because he was not Moscow trained, he was singled out for particular attention, as he associated with the non-PPP crowd. In fact, he single-handedly broke the door open for the PPP to reach into the halls of the other crowds of Guyanese across Guyana that the rest of the PPP never used to deal with. I remember his struggles with the PPP leadership to get them to go with him to the GT clubs so than they could get to know these other people at Praks’s expense. Ramjattan is a very successful criminal lawyer in Guyana, and this has been achieved by his discipline and dedication to his chosen craft. He spends hours every night, when the rest of the nation is asleep, to research his cases in his own impressive library. He does not go to court and spew legal jargon. He is always well prepared and to the point and is well respected among his peers. Indeed his is a very well trained and independent legal mind. Sadly, this proved to be his undoing with the party, in spite of his dedicated years of service to the PPP, where all men are expected to think alike, but in effect where no man thinks at all, unless it is group think. Praks has and continues to work pro bono on many matters affecting the people. He is not a money-hungry, money-grabbing individual. In fact, chances are that he would delve into his pocket and dole out funds instead. Just as with his finances and time and efforts for the good fight and cause, he would continue to give to the cause of (new) party and country. Khemraj Ramjattan is a complete politician. He breeds and sweats his passion for the people. I unreservedly recommend him as the presidential candidate of the AFC, with the certainty that the long suffering of the Guyanese will, within five years, come to an end under a Ramjattan presidency. Praks is fair-handed and fair-minded, and I am most confident he will dispense justice, administration and management similarly.
Yours faithfully,
Lionel Peters
