Dear Editor,
The announcement in your Saturday news article by PPP presidential candidate, Mr Donald Ramotar, that he is open to President Bharrat Jagdeo playing a role in a new government (assuming Mr Ramotar becomes President), comes as little or no surprise to me. And the reason is simple and straightforward: Mr Ramotar may have been a known political quantity among the PPP support base, but to the rest of the nation, he may have been just a name with no known political record of activities or achievements. For President Jagdeo and Mr Ramotar, therefore, this is not about what’s good for Guyana; it is about a delusional sense of political entitlement in the PPP.
Before he became the General Secretary of the PPP, I never really knew of Mr Ramotar as a political quantity in the PPP the way I, a virtual outsider, learned of PPP frontliners like Reepu Daman Persaud or Moses Nagamootoo or Clinton Collymore. I have not known him to serve in any managerial or leadership capacity in the private or public sector or even government service to test or prove his managerial or leadership skills. I know of no public record of him being in the trenches fighting for Guyanese. I never read any published works of his that pointed to a vision of Guyana’s major social and economic development.
I did read a few letters where some wrote fondly of him, but those seem to be from personal and party perspectives, so unless there is a sudden emergence of information on Mr Ramotar that recommends him as a candidate capable of handling the onerous duties of presiding over cleaning up a government drowning in corruption and setting it on a straight path to major socio-economic development, then he has to be the least visibly active or known of the three presidential candidates in this year’s race.
PNC presidential candidate and retired army brigadier, Mr David Granger, hardly needs any introduction, as both a military career professional and widely published writer. He has also spoken up about the wrongs of the PPP government, offered his views of a better way, and was even ‘bloodied’ by the President.
And AFC presidential candidate, Mr Khemraj Ramjattan, who could have compromised his conscience and stayed to benefit in the Jagdeo administration, left the PPP and helped launch the AFC, which he used as his forum to speak and write extensively against the corrupt and inept government. He was even a visible force in the PPP traditional strongholds highlighting the government’s ineptitude.
Mr Ramotar, on the other hand, sat with his mouth glued shut and hands twist-tied as the Jagdeo administration behaved as though the people’s monies and resources could be disposed of as they saw fit without any accountability. In fact, Mr Ramotar sat on the GuySuCo board as the sugar industry tanked. Is this the man to lead Guyana?
Editor, since the Jagdeo presidency is the closest Mr Ramotar has come to seeing what a PPP President has done, and he clearly lacks the requisite leadership fortitude, he will need President Jagdeo as the political crutch on whom to lean if he becomes President.
Though I am no fan of House Speaker, Mr Ralph Ramkarran, I hold Mr Ramkarran in higher esteem than Mr Ramotar for having publicly acknowkledged corruption in government as a priority to be tackled. Mr Ramotar, conversely, sees no problem having President Jagdeo serve in a Ramotar administration. Little wonder then that when President Jagdeo introduced him as the party’s candidate to the party’s county meetings, the highest selling point of Mr Ramotar’s qualifications for the job was that he is “intellectually curious.” I found that selling point curiously confusing and intellectually insulting, because if there is no adverting to Mr Ramotar’s record of achievements that would recommend him to the nation, then he is more than likely going to be a figurehead President, if he is elected. Does this then explain why Mr Ramotar is open to President Jagdeo being in his administration?
And even if I were to concede that as General Secretary of the PPP, Mr Ramotar was the de facto leader, thus proving he is an experienced leader, the truth is, the PPP strictly adheres to the principles of democratic centralism, which means that a President Ramotar regime will be governed by the core practice of democratic centralism in politics: our way or you can take the highway!
But besides Mr Ramotar’s lack of vision and tested leadership skills, another possible reason he may be open to President Jagdeo serving in a Ramotar administration is to benefit the President. Even before he was picked, Mr Ramotar was identified by observers in and out of the PPP as the President’s replacement choice. But that was only after it became an open secret that President Jagdeo wanted an extended stay in office, and the prevailing perception among observers was that if he didn’t get to stay on as President then his next best option was to ensure he had a direct say in who will be his replacement. This would ensure, among other things, that all deals struck by his government will not be revisited with a view to being rescinded.
The people of this nation have read and heard of the corruption in government, but they have no idea of its extent and the level it has reached. This is why this year’s election is going to be critical to the longevity of the PPP, the relevance of the PNC, the emergence of the AFC and the future of the nation. It is going to be up to voters, therefore, to understand the true nature of the Jagdeo-Ramotar agenda that is underlined by their delusion of political entitlement at the nation’s expense.
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
