What comes after PPP secret ballot?

Jan 09, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The People’s Progressive Party’s presidential aspirant, Ralph Ramkarran is at it again. This man, in his pursuit of the esteemed Office of President of Guyana has lost focus of fairness and rationality.
In his letter to Kaieteur News of Old Year’s Day 2010, titled, “The PPP has always conducted contested elections by secret ballot”.
To attract wide readership so that his written words can find traction he indulges Freddie.
“Mr. Frederick Kissoon’s breathless fulminations are a marvel to behold. It is not the falsity of the conclusions based on analyses of manufactured “facts”, at least in relation to me. It is the passionate and daily vehemence sustained with such fervor for so many years that sets Mr. Kissoon apart from other columnists”.
Was this what Ralph intended writing about or was this a diversion for the purpose of making Ralph appear to be relevant to the pursuit of the office he seeks, using the popularity of Guyana’s most controversial and heavily sought after columnist Freddie Kissoon so that he attracts the widest reading audience. If that is not opportunistic then what is.
On that score the issue I want to raise now is the concept and practice of secret balloting within the PPP, past and present. Have there been burning issues that have not seen the light of day, from as early as the Metropole Cinema in 1955 to the present. These instances are well documented and a letter will not allow for adequate ventilation of those issues here. But suffice it to state there have been very credible instances of suspected malpractice and gerrymandering openly taking place in the conduct of internal PPP elections.
Case in point:
In 1990 at the Empire Cinema in Georgetown I received 423 votes to be popularly elected as a Candidate Member of the PPP’s CC. I was political Organiser of Greater Georgetown, and PYO third Secretary, after Rohan Singh and Prakesh Ramjattan.
So I held thee important positions simultaneously. Incidentally I also mixed my leader’s drinks at every function at Freedom House during this period. I worked diligently and made an outstanding contribution to the PPP/C winning those General Elections.
I was also very instrumental in the genesis of the Civic, took care of the PYO’s National Sports programmes and national outreach work and planning, conducted Accabre classes, when that institution could not decide what was practical and possible plus my daily responsibility to prepare the Greater Georgetown area to manage its own affairs, culminating in a very successful election day, in spite of the riots.
Come 1994 and the PPP’s Congress at Queen’s College; I am in charge of venue preparedness and as usual does an excellent job before all gathered, including delegates, observers and guests.
I contested as a full member of the CC this time and when the results were publicised, low and behold, it is announced that Lionel Peters was 36th on the slate. There are 35 members of the CC and five members as Candidate Members.
A closer examination of events revealed the following:
1. Many delegates from the various Regions claimed that they did not notice my name on the ballot or were they aware that I was contesting the elections, because I was not one of the “sponsored blue eyed boys”.
2. Many of those involved in the counting of the ballots claimed that the results announced were doctored (Ralph’s concept of secrecy and confidentiality) and was certainly not free and fair and my votes were very prominent among those called as obtaining votes as the ballots were checked off from the ballot sheets and tallied. The only sector where I did not garner many votes from was among CC members. The person who traditionally conducted these elections was a very trusted servant of Cheddi’s.
3. The reason I have not raised this issue before was that an important current functionary in the Foreign Service was in charge of the conduct of those elections, Baney Karran, brother of Ralph, who, as soon as he had announced the results, left the podium and came straight to me, in company with Navin Chanderpal, Prakash Ramjattan, Khemraj Rai, Gerhard Ramsaroop, Christina Peters and others and demanded that I ask the General Secretary and Congress for and immediate recount and re certification of the published results. Navin was so upset that he used an invective to the effect that “this *****can’t happen here” and headed straight to the podium.
Baney Karran was so indignant that two weeks after, at Bel Air Primary School, where I was conducting an Accabre class, he visited and insisted that I challenge the results announced at the Congress. The question is why? Obviously he conducted the elections, was in charge of the count and tally sheets and handed that sheet over to the Czarina as is customary at the end of all elections.
And it is at this point that democracy in the PPP ended and manipulation of the team is determined. My name was conveniently removed and dropped to 36th position so I could not be a sitting member of the party’s highest decision-making body between congresses.
Reason was I was not a yes man and would stand and speak my mind at every CC meeting and had advocated for the election of brighter, younger members from the regions to replace some of the dead weights that were only being sponsored to sit on the CC for their safe votes to maintain the status quo, entrenched/embedded.
I never did challenge those results because I would have wasted my energies as I was trying my case in Jagan’s Court, loaded in his favour and importantly I told myself that they had it out for me and would spin the situation to make me look bad. In any case, a look at the composition of the CC guaranteed that vacancies would arise shortly from death, migration, attrition etc.
Little did I understand the intrigues of the little Communist, as first the conspiracy to break the party Constitution and remove Prakash Ramjattan and in so doing reverse the decision of the highest decision making body of the Party, Congress, and that that vacancy would not be filled for a long time to come, until someone convenient was found outside of the norms of succession.
Another issue altogether Ralph, what about the manipulation of the delegates list to ensure the attendance of the old guard so that the voting would not be influenced by the youth factor and newer membership?
4. Has anyone ever bothered to question/investigate why the then General Secretary of GAWU, the venerable Boysie Ramkarran, also simultaneously deputy leader of the PPP, resigned in disgust and walked out of political life and into premature self exile at his home in Bel Air. Before and after these developments he advised all who would listen to take care of their young families as they would get nothing from the Jagans.
Is it true Ralph that your father as part of the executive of GAWU had fired Shree Chand as Finance Secretary of GAWU and that Janet Jagan, in her next counter move then re-hired Shree Chand as Finance Secretary of the PPP? Simultaneously as all of these developments were transpiring there was a GAWU strike on sanctioned by Boysie and Cheddi came to a discussion on the strike, pretended to listen, never heard a word from the leaders and players in the union and at the end announced that it was decided to end the strike. At which point Boysie got up, accused the Jagans of running a man and wife show and walked out and into self exile.
5. There is the episode of GAC yet to be exposed Ralph. You were on the Board
6. Ralph is still not being honest with his narratives of the discussions that took place to determine Cheddi and Janet or Bharrat’s usurpation of the presidential candidature of their times.
7. Ralph was never a PPP rank and file leader like Moses Nagamootoo or Navin or Indra, the three populist leaders of the eighties and nineties of the PPP. So how come he now believes that he qualifies if not to exploit the weaknesses inherent in the PPP’s machinery so beautifully being latched on to by “the Donald”. Or does Ralph now believe it is his time, as in the “divine rights of Kings”, from within the PPP, to gerrymander his climb to the nomination, exploiting an opening he helped to create in the Guyana Constitution; very convenient with three populist leaders virtually sidelined by Bharrat.
8. This writer is hoping that other writers with relevant experiences would now step forward and write their stories to add to the saga of party life under the Jagans’.
9. Are there other skeletons in the cupboard Ralph? Burnham used to say, “If you tickle me I gon talk”.
Guyana needs a new vision for Guyanese prosperity through the practice of Liberal Democracy as advocated by the young and energetic Alliance For Change (AFC). Make the right turn fellow countrymen and let a dying motherland breathe again.
Lionel Peters

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