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Is it really Uncle Donald that put his foot down?

Jan 30, 2014 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
The prevailing opinion in Guyana is that Donald Ramotar is the Jagdeoites’ Dmitry Medvedev. Messrs Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh summed it up in their letter titled “Present PPP strategies full of Jagdeo’s fingerprint” (KN, August 6, 2012), in which they stated: “It’s been six months and we are yet to see President Ramotar being his own man. When will he be his own man? Is this how he will run this country; as a surrogate President fronting for Guyana’s Putin? What is wrong with Ramotar? With the Constitution on his side, why is he so spineless?”
So, when a commentator like Peeping Tom misses this unavoidable public perception of Donald Ramotar, we get the kind of nonsense we got in his article titled “Uncle Donald puts his foot down” (KN, January 27, 2014).
The resignation or removal of Ganga Persaud is not an indication of Ramotar’s assertion of authority or demonstration of fortitude. It is, in keeping with public opinion, a demonstration that the Jagdeoites still dominate government and Ramotar is still in submission to them.
Ganga Persaud was never given a ministerial post by Jagdeo. In fact, Junior Minister under Ganga Persaud, Norman Whittaker, was Jagdeo’s pick for Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, sworn in by Jagdeo in August 2011. Ramotar then put Ganga Persaud ahead of Whittaker. Now, Jagdeo’s selection has been restored while Ramotar’s selection is now out of that office.
In summary, Ramotar’s pick has been kicked out of the position and Jagdeo’s pick restored for now. In the troubled excuse for intellectual analysis Peeping Tom contumely delivers in this respected newspaper, he sees this as Donald Ramotar putting his foot down, a Guyanese phrase that exemplifies the display of strength, force and authority.
Indeed, Ramotar has put his foot down to remove his own selection and to restore Jagdeo’s choice. What an excellent example of Donald’s foot being put down and then stepped on! Kaieteur News reported in an article titled “Sugar overhaul… GuySuCo’s Chairman to become CEO – Ramotar” (KN, January 25, 2014) that Dr. Rajendra Singh, current GuySuCo Chairman and Jagdeo favourite, will become the new CEO of GuySuCo.
Peeping Tom needed to peep further into the empty shell of his take on this issue and recognize that while Ramotar’s pick Ganga Persaud was being removed from office, Jagdeo’s fortunate GuySuCo pick now goes from Chairman to CEO. Nothing underlines Ramotar’s fragility, frailty and powerlessness more than this state of affairs.
Those with a brain, intellectual integrity and the ability to read leadership vulnerability know who is giving and who is taking orders at the Office of the President. Donald Ramotar is the best thing to happen to the Jagdeoites. Long before Guyanese voters decide his political fate in 2016, Ramotar’s political fate will be decided by the Jagdeoites. If the PPP falters badly again in local government elections likely to occur this year, and the fear is that Ramotar cannot secure the presidency in 2016 and that another Jagdeoite has a better chance of doing so, the Jagdeoites will use their domination of the PPP Central Committee and its Executive Committee to force Ramotar to resign to install their choice.
If the results of the local government election and their own internal polling and other studies indicate the PPP is likely to lose the presidency in 2016 regardless of who it puts as the presidential candidate, the Jagdeoites will likely hold onto a weak Ramotar as they mount a massive campaign to plunder this country before fleeing and leaving their helpless supporters behind.
There are some in this country who will grasp at straws like drowning charlatans to support their inept and failed leaders. In a river of failure since November 28, 2011, they will desperately cling to a thread of delusion looking for relief in anything the “leader” does and then try to spin it as a ray of light, when in fact, it is only a continuation of the vast wall of weakness.
M. Maxwell

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