Orchestral manoeuvres in the dark: The notes of Dr. Nanda Gopaul

Feb 19, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

In his reply to my article; “Josh Ramsammy: The great sacrifice for a nation,” Dr. Nanda Gopaul, wrote; “The President is a person who listens to his colleagues and makes decisions on the facts presented. He is a leader with an astute mind, great leadership skills, and concern for people’s well-being.”
Dr. Gopaul has been someone I have known for a long time. Like Boyo Ramsaroop and Keith Scott, our friendship has never been spoilt by political preferences. But I must say that unlike Boyo and Keith, Nanda’s politics takes him into the realm of decision-making.
I am not going to challenge Dr. Gopaul’s panegyric of the President. Suffice it to say that I hold the opposite conceptualization of Mr. Jagdeo. Dr. Gopaul says he can speak without fear of contradiction. I will say that I can speak without fear of contradiction that Mr. Jagdeo is the second worst ruler the Caribbean has seen after Burnham.
I would rate Eric Gairy as number three. It is left up to others to debate Dr. Gopaul’s praise of the Guyanese President since I have written enormously on the failings and failures of Bharrat Jagdeo as Guyana’s President. In those essays nothing personal was intended or ever will be, but it needs to be said that the record against Mr. Jagdeo’s political virtues are indeed huge and graphic.
The essential point of this essay is to inform Nanda that his response to me has done enormous damage to the credibility of Mr. Jagdeo. I know Nanda started out in earnest to defend the President and to shower words of admiration for Dr. Ramsammy. Unfortunately, his notes achieved the opposite. Let us enumerate the fault lines. Dr. Gopaul wrote; “Josh’s last year saw major disagreements with senior administrators at UG and when that was conveyed to the Minister of Education a new Pro-Chancellor was appointed in an effort to bring some peace and comfort at the highest level of the University.”
I don’t care if you bring the world’s greatest genius on the English language that statement means one and only one thing given the way the grammar was arranged. It meant that Josh Ramsammy was the problem so his removal would remove the problem. Dr. Gopaul said it plainly and unambiguously: “To bring peace and comfort at the highest level of the University.”
Now the one billion dollar question – peace and comfort to whom? Before I leave this aspect of the debate, I wish to inform Nanda that Josh’s buddy pal, Parliamentarian Keith Scott is immensely annoyed at that statement and plans to confront Nanda on it. Good luck Nanda!
Dr. Gopaul wrote effusively in that very response on the greatness of Dr. Ramsammy. Well he couldn’t be that great when he was not eligible to be the Pro-Chancellor at a university where he spent thirty years working. What is the yardstick Dr. Gopaul uses to measure greatness?
Now let us get into the mystery of Dr. Gopaul’s notes. I ask readers to pay careful attention. Here are the words of Dr. Gopaul; “As Pro-Chancellor, Dr. Ramsammy met with strong resistance from…notably the two most senior members on campus.” Let us quote more of Dr. Gopaul; “I guess we could argue that those who were fighting Josh should have been fired.”
So Dr. Gopaul ends up with some strange manoeuvres and in the process has damaged the legacy of Josh and the credibility of the President.
Where is the mystery? Aaah! Dr. Gopaul cannot tell us who these people were. And where did they go after they won against Josh in 2000? To reveal who these people are and their careers after their victory would expose the politics of President Jagdeo. Guess who one of them is? A person who has been and is very, very close to Mrs. Janet Jagan and Bharrat Jagdeo and other top PPP leaders.
There was no question as to who had to go. Josh Ramsammy was dismissed, not by the Minister of Education, Dale Bisnauth. Yesterday, Dr. Bisnauth, the then Education Minister approves of me quoting him as saying that Dr. Gopaul’s letter is silly.
All of Guyana knows who made the decision.
I end by swearing on the grave of my good friend Josh Ramsammy that he thought President Jagdeo was a dictator and that the PPP in many, many ways had become worse than Burnham. I was his friend, Nanda. He confided in me. I know you admire him but he didn’t admire the PPP and President Jagdeo. I am sorry if that is hard to accept Nanda, but it is the truth. The great freedom fighter, Dr. Joshua Reuben Ramsammy died a very chagrined man over what his country had become under Mr. Jagdeo. I would not lie on this great human being.

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