The Nagamootoo enigma explained

Jun 02, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

One of the omissions of my daily column, is that I have failed (and badly too) over the years to pen explanations that people ask me for all the time, explanations that arose out of their reading of my quotidian observations.

I don’t know why I have never followed up on it as consistently as I should. I think I owe it to my readers to do so.

I have been asked to give my opinion, as to why Mr. Jagdeo is so unmoved about seeking compromises. People expressed curiosity to me about Mr. Corbin’s future, and what do I think about him staying on for the 2011 elections. There are many questions to be explored, and from time to time, I will do so on this page.

An inquiry was made as to why Mr. Moses Nagamootoo is not a popular figure among his peers in the PPP, when he would have worked with some of them for over two decades. An influential journalist told me, that my last week’s piece on Nagamootoo was incomplete because I did not probe the intrigues.

Space is a big constraint in writing. Your essay is long and it turns people off. Readers like short, crisp pieces. You cannot put all the relevant viewpoints into one article. It will become long and cumbersome.

What follows here, are my opinions which were formed without any lengthy discussions with PPP insiders. In time to come, I will dig deeper into the Nagamootoo enigma.

I believe two reasons explain why Nagamootoo’s comrades in the Central Committee and the Executive Committee, have chosen not to reinvent him in the nerve centre of their party.

The first reason has to do with realpolitik. A majority in the PPP’s hierarchy, knows that Mr. Jagdeo does not want Nagamootoo in the Executive Committee of the organization.

This does not mean that they have to be preoccupied with how Mr. Jagdeo conceives of Mr. Nagamootoo. But these people are the recipients of Mr. Jagdeo’s generosity. They and their relatives and family members have been awarded positions of high income. Even if you have secret ballot and they reintegrate Mr. Nagamootoo into fabric of the PPP, it is too large a gamble to take; they may be afraid that they could come under suspicion.

The thinking of these people goes like this: “Why should I jeopardize my economic station in life for Nagamootoo? He is a friend yes, he fought for the PPP yes, but he is only one man and his time may have passed; I still have to live my life.”

I believe when President Jagdeo refused Moses a Cabinet assignment, it was the strongest signal to these recipients that Mr. Jagdeo is not inclined to elevate Mr. Nagamootoo in the scheme of things.

For them, the matter is closed. This writer has facts to support the theory that it was President Jagdeo that brokered a deal with Nagamootoo to have him back in 2006.

Mr. Nagamootoo was terribly outsmarted. He fell for the President’s overtures on the feeling that he was being brought back into the life of the party and government. But the manoeuvre was to ensure that Nagamootoo did not campaign against the PPP. Once victory was achieved, Nagamootoo was ignominiously discarded.

The second factor is somewhat related to the first, but has a different form. If the PPP’s main decision-makers had voted to bring back Nagamootoo into the Executive, rather than the two persons named last week, then there would have been a genuine fear that Nagamootoo would have contested the presidential slot for 2011. That had to send alarm bells ringing.

Since the alienation of Nagamootoo, there would have been a rupture in his relationship with his stalwart-friends.

He would have thought that given the long friendship between them, they would have stood with him over the years when the disagreements with the PPP leadership began.

Those people may now fear that a PPP victory in 2011 with Nagamootoo as President would mean the end for them. These persons will obviously still enjoy the same status if the PPP secures victory in 2011, with a president other than Nagamootoo.

In the end, they chose survival. Their thinking is quite logical. It is highly unlikely that Nagamootoo as President would retain them. He may even have no use for them at all.

That therefore is my explanation why Nagamootoo’s long standing pals from the seventies, have chosen not to resuscitate him. It appears that Nagamootoo’s break with the PPP is final. I doubt we will see ever see him again in the leadership of the PPP.

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