I accept Mr. Ramkarran’s apology. We should have lunch

Jul 20, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

If Mr. Ramkarran and I are going to have lunch, of course, he will have to buy. Comparing the two of us is like a homeless person and an American multi- millionaire. Mr. Ramkarran has extended a public apology to me and I accept his regret.
I hope we can move on and maybe we can have lunch and talk about the future of a country that both of us are never going to leave but spend out of the rest of our lives in.
There are two internet radios that are gaining an extended market. One is benschopradio.com run by Mark Benschop; the other Dennis Chabrol’s demerarawaves.com. I didn’t know that demerarawaves.com had interviewed Mr. Ralph Ramkarran until attorney, Gino Persaud, told me about it and asked me if I am satisfied that Mr. Ramkarran has apologized to me.
Gino played the section for me. He and Dennis Chabrol conducted the interview. I am not surprised that Gino Persaud brought up the question of an apology.
I have known Gino Persaud for quiet some now after teaching him political studies at UG. Gino is also close to Mr. Ramkarran. I once told Gino that I lost confidence in Mr. Ramkarran as one of the better personalities the PPP produced when he completely surprised me with a libel suit.
My expression to Gino was that my disappointment had two dimensions to it. I will now relate why. Before doing so, I am not unmindful that the regret came ten years after and in the midst of a campaign by Mr. Ramkarran to be the PPP’s point man for the next election.
The libel should not have occurred because in the column I wrote that upset Mr. Ramkarran, I did acknowledge that he was one of the better politicians in Guyana. What happened is that in November 1999, the PPP’s executive committee met and chastised Mr. Moses Nagamootoo for employing me as his media consultant. The committee terminated the contract.
I wrote that such a conference was an evil one and I was surprised that a person of high standing like Mr. Ramkarran could have participated in such a process. Read from any angle, that was a opinion that conceded that Mr. Ramkarran was of a higher quality than his PPP peers.
Mr. Ramkarran’s contention was that he was not there. I got the information from Moses Nagamootoo. Three times I asked Nagamootoo to speak publicly about the edict the committee gave him. He has refused.
To this day I do not know if Nagamootoo told me the truth. To this day, I don’t know if Mr. Ramkarran was there. But let us assume that Mr. Ramkarran was not there and I was wrong. He should not have sued after several implorations from Khemraj Ramjattan not to do so.
My second level of anger was that Mr. Ramkarran himself wrote the apology. Mr. Glen Lall was out of the country.
We had a brand new editor, Nills Campbell. The apology was published on the front page. My lawyer, Mr. Ramjattan and I had no input.
In that apology, Mr. Ramkarran unambiguously stated that no such meeting occurred.
Mr. Moses Nagamootoo told me he attended a statutory session of Thursday, November 18, 1999 of the PPP of which he was an elected member and was given an order to terminate my consultancy with him. My research proved that there was such a meeting. I honestly do not think that Mr. Ramkarran should have changed that fact to a non-fact in the apology. There was indeed such a conference.
This, then, is the background to the quarrel with Mr. Ramkarran. Prior to that explosion, I can honestly say that in endless conversations I have had with political observers who studied PPP politics, the opinion was that Mr. Ramkarran was of higher pedigree than a majority of his colleagues.
Once again, I accept Mr. Ramkarran’s apology. Nothing I have written on him was ever motivated by personal mischief. I was merely being my normal analytical self.
I will forget what he wrote against me. I wish Mr. Ramkarran well in his campaign endeavours.
I would urge him to reflect on what his party, the PPP, has become under Mr. Jagdeo’s presidency. I would suggest to Mr. Ramkarran to use his political longevity to democratize the PPP. It has been in autocratic shape since its birth.
Mr. Ramkarran should join Nagamotoo and the rest of Guyana in insisting that the membership of the PPP vote for its leader and its next presidential candidate. I believe he owes the Guyanese people that obligation.

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I accept Mr. Ramkarran’s apology. We should have lunch

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