Dear Editor,
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo is a professional par excellence, particularly when he served as Minister of Information in the Cheddi and Janet Jagan cabinets as well as in his relations with others. Mo, as I called him, was moulded by the great Cheddi Jagan in his political ways − conduct yourself morally, ground with the working class, and be compassionate to the poor.
Mr Nagamootoo was a professional in every aspect of the word in all of his official activities when he was a PPP member and when he served in government. He has always been decent and in my travels throughout Guyana since 1992 I never heard anyone utter a bad word about him except since his embrace of APNU. He served with honour and integrity, and no one can point a finger at him for any corrupt act. He was a perfectionist in his ministries and a hard worker − putting in 16 hours a day while some of his colleagues ran a short shift.
The Prime Minister is an intellectual without much comparison in his former party, one of a few in the PPP to break ranks with the party. I visited his office numerous times when he was Minister of Information and subsequently when he served in Local Government after his return from Trinidad, where he pursued a law degree. He knew of my contribution to the struggle for free and fair elections while I was a young student at Corentyne High School and subsequently when I migrated to New York to pursue a university education at the tender age of 17. He tried several times to recruit me to come and work in his ministry, but I declined the offers. He told me once that Janet Jagan, right after she became President, had suggested that I be recruited to work in Foreign Affairs when I was doing doctoral studies in International Politics. I declined. My interest was an international posting or to assist with our national airline. Mr Nagamootoo did not have influence in either one. And my proposals to transform both were rejected; both turned out to be less than successful.
Mr Nagamootoo was very helpful to me in my studies. We met several times in his apartment in St Augustine in Trinidad where he lived a very modest life as any serious student would. He offered advice and suggestions when I was writing one of my doctoral dissertations. He is brilliant and possessed of a wide knowledge on varied subjects; clearly, he read a lot on various subjects. And of course, he is an excellent writer and a journalist; he understood the profession and the role of the media. I credit him for my early exposure as a columnist and reporter with the Guyana Chronicle and later with reporting for various newspapers as well as for my polling. Once he chided me for going overboard in critiquing the opposition when I was a columnist. He respected professionalism and objectivity. And even when he was in government, he felt the media should be objective; if you got back to issues of the Chronicle when he was the line Minister, you would see it was professionally managed with objective reporting and commentaries. He wanted news to be objectively reported; he was not interested in sycophancy and ego massaging (like the former PPP ministers) but facts. After he left ministerial appointment, we spoke numerous times (during visits) on how the government media was misused but he was helpless to change its course for reasons well known.
Moses Nagamootoo (like Ralph Ramkarran) played a critical role in the restoration of democracy in Guyana. Either one would have won the Presidency in 2011 (as I penned in 2011) or even last Monday. They were not given their rightful place in the PPP and were unceremoniously dumped. They should have been handled differently in 2011 by the PPP leadership; they were irreplaceable. They qualified for the presidential nomination and had the ability and capacity to serve as president. They would have been excellent rulers. It is a pity the PPP rejected them – two of its most illustrious sons after the Jagans. The rejection of their nominations as PPP presidential candidate and their ill-treatment were among the greatest travesties in the PPP since Balram Singh Rai was robbed of the chairmanship of the party. And the results of their rejection by party insiders were revealed at the election outcome.
Moses Nagamootoo has earned his stripes. And if nothing else, under his prime ministership, rest assured he would remain a professional and not abuse the media. Congrats on a well earned post!
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
