Dear Editor,
My letter dated April 6, captioned ‘Ramotar will not make a good president’ drew widespread agreement, but did not find favour with the current Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ralph Ramkarran, who was himself a prime candidate in the PPP selection process.
I said in my letter to SN that he “chucked in the towel without a fight”. He wrote to me stating that he did not “chuck in the towel without a fight” and requested that I publish his “reply to all the people who I had sent my email” regarding what I had publicly stated. I am therefore doing a favour to him by stating further what he said to me.
His explanation was as follows: “There were intense discussions involving me. It is only at the end of the meeting that I withdrew, long after the other two (Gail Teixeira and Clement Rohee) had withdrawn in their opening statement and long after my opening statement. I entered the meeting with the expectation that it would conclude with a vote, whether by a show of hands or a secret ballot. It was only at the end of the meeting that I withdrew after the discussions. As you well know, there was never any chance that I would succeed.”
Editor, I am in the habit of circulating my letters to the press to more than 600 email contacts, since I am never sure whether my letters will pass your editorial scrutiny and I was right in this case; you did not publish the entire letter.
But the Speaker of the House of Assembly was further infuriated by my suggestion that he did not put up a fight, maybe because he was afraid that his colleagues would have accused him of corruption.
In his reply, he wants me to tell the Guyanese readers and the world as follows: “I have no skeletons in my cupboard.
“There are none. I have never stolen and I am not involved in any corruption. You have been talking to me so assiduously over the past months, did you feel that I had skeletons in my cupboard and did you feel I was dishonest? My record is open and I rely on it.”
Editor, I feel duty bound to let my readers know exactly how the gentleman feels about rumours around the corridors of power and in certain circles. But what concerns most of us who were prepared to support Mr Ramkarran’s candidacy, knowing full well that he was not the best choice for the job, was his jubilant behaviour when he came out of the selection (not an election) meeting of the Central Committee of the PPP. He gave the fist salute as if to suggest that he was in full agreement with the deliberations, or should I say the deal.
Mr Ramkarran completely ignores the fact that he had raised the hopes of thousands of people in Guyana and abroad – that if he were to be elected that he would have been the prime candidate that could have changed, completely the undemocratic nature of the People’s Progressive Party and got rid of its Stalinist past.
Mr Ramkarran forgets that it was people like me and many others who privately and publicly appealed to Mr Moses Nagamootoo to engage in a negotiation process that could see the defeat of a Jagdeo puppet candidate and an end to the life of this miserable regime and set the country towards rapid economic recovery and political democracy.
In addition, we felt that under his leadership it was possible for us to form a government of national unity (not shared government) with other progressive forces that have similar goals and aspirations for our country.
The fact that he did not pick up the courage to walk out of the farce and agreed subsequently with the misrepresentation of the facts – calling it a “unanimous” vote, when in fact it was a selection, tells us a lot about his commitment to this nation and to the members and supporters of the PPP.
It is now left for Moses Nagamootoo to carry on the fight and reclaim the original values of the PPP and Dr Jagan. Few will doubt Mr Nagamootoo’s loyalty to the nation and his reputation to unite our people – as one People, One Nation and One Destiny.
The days and months ahead will be exciting for those who are on the side of decency and a prosperous Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Jinnah Rahman
