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Moses finally drowns in the sea

May 21, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

It had to happen to the Guyanese Moses. You go into the sea all the time to do what the Biblical Moses has done and one day you will be drowned. Last week, the Red Sea in Robb Street, known to all Guyanese as Freedom House, sank Moses Nagamootoo.
It is not that Moses wasn’t politically dead. His career was dying when he rejoined the PPP’s 2006 election campaign. It was about to die when his request to the President for a Cabinet post was turned down. Now the final rites will be read, bringing down the curtain on more than forty years of political activism.
Last week, the PPP announced two names to join the main policy-making body, the Executive Committee which meets fortnightly to shape the direction of the party. Moses who came in at number five at the congressional voting last August did not make it. The two persons selected are Frank Anthony and Philomena Sahoye.
Given the popularity of Moses at the last congress, he should have been the obvious choice, together with Anthony who came in second. It has been a long road of humiliation and self-humiliation for the stalwart politician that needs recapping.
It would appear that the fallout began when Nagamootoo left the Cabinet to pursue a law degree. The rumours in the Red Sea were that he was showing ambition while Cheddi was still at the helm of the party. Matters did not settle down when controversy soared over who should have succeeded Cheddi after he died. Moses believed that Cheddi had him in mind a long time before he, Cheddi took ill.
Mrs. Jagan produced a letter by Cheddi, purportedly written on his death bed, anointing his wife as his successor. Moses disputed this. To this day, there are doubts by many analysts as to the authenticity of that document. This writer does not accept it. I believe Mrs. Jagan brought a forgery to life.
It was downhill from here for Nagamootoo. He was alienated from the leadership of the party and hardly attended meetings of the leadership. The Guyanese people believed he would have parted company with the PPP after he broke ranks and accused the President of insinuating that Khemraj Ramjattan took party business to the US Embassy.
During the period of his alienation, Nagamooto spoke several times to the press in which he spoke out against corruption in the PPP Government. He even made an accusation against then Home Affairs Minister, Ronald Gajraj.
To the surprise of most Guyanese, Nagamootoo went back into the PPP, was a candidate in the 2006 election. He kept his 60th birthday party at the Ocean View Hotel where the featured speakers were Mrs. Jagan, the President and Donald Ramotar. At that event, he announced to his guests that he never had a problem with “his party,” obviously forgetting that he would have told some of those present of his trials and tribulations the past seven years.
While the birthday was in full swing, I got a call from one of the guests telling me about Moses’s speech. He failed to attract a Cabinet seat with the President’s explanation that the two slots that interested Nagamootoo had its point people already. That didn’t hold up after the Foreign Minister Mr. Insanally resigned and Moses was bypassed.
This brings us to the announcement last week. Where does Moses go from here? Whatever he does, it appears that his career is virtually over, not to mention his credibility and image are hardly intact.
There has been too much of humiliation and mistreatment for Moses Nagamootoo to think that across Guyana he is still viewed with respect and admiration. He could continue with the PPP and secure a parliamentary seat in 2011. Or he could find solace in another organization.
The question is what would he bring to that other party? Could he hurt the PPP in 2011?
It could either way for him. He could cause his new outfit to lose votes on the charge that he switched sides because he couldn’t get what he wanted from the PPP. Voters may ask why didn’t he break before and tell us all the things he is now saying.
On the other hand, if he has revelations that are damning, he could cause traditional PPP enclaves to rethink putting back those old forces. But what could Nagamootoo tell                                                                                                                            Guyanese about dark secrets and skeletons inside the PPP’s closet that they do not know already and that many opposition figures and the media know too.
My advice to Moses is that his political ventures have come to an end. Concentrate on your law career, Moses.

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