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Mr. Ramson is not a political ramson. Certainly not!
Jul 08, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
In the life of a media operative, some episodes of his/her career will always be remembered by the practitioner himself/herself. An inevitable question that comes up when a long serving media personality is being interviewed is; “Tell me which incident has stuck in your memory forever?”
If I was asked that question about my columns, I would say it was the statement made by Mr. Charles Ramson in his capacity as Attorney General last year when he told the media that when he heard people talking about a Minister who does illegal things he thought they had him in mind because he is a person given to doing such things.
Don’t ask me why that has gone down as one of the things I will always remember writing about when I look at my long career as a commentator/analyst, but the fact is that it is. I cannot and will never understand why a Minister of Government would say such a thing. And I will never understand why it has lodged itself in my memory. Perhaps I will do a Freudian analysis on me to ascertain the deep, psychological reason.
I found the urge to do this column on Mr. Ramson when I read a letter on his judgement on the West Indian Test captain in a letter in the Wednesday edition of the Stabroek News. Mr. Ramson’s belief is that the captain, Mr. Darren Sammy, should not have retained his place in the team. I read his letter and I blurted out; “Charlie, you can actually do analysis.” So I decided that I will ask Mr. Ramson if he can make a judgement by using analysis about who should be in the West Indian eleven. Then I will ask him who he thinks should not be in the Jagdeo team; by that I mean the Cabinet.
Before I put the question to Mr. Ramson, I was glad for the information that he gave to the public in that Stabroek News letter. It missed me and I was glad Mr. Ramson printed it. According to the Attorney General (AG), his Cabinet colleague, Minister Frank Anthony, wrote the CEO of the West Indian Cricket Board, Mr. Ernest Hilaire, a letter about the Board’s selection of Test players.
The AG described Mr. Hilaire’s response as “disrespectful, bordering on utter disdain.” I don’t know Mr. Hilaire but I am glad that he was disrespectful to and disdainful of Minister Anthony for two reasons. People need to stand up to the dictatorship of the Guyana Government. Why should WI cricketers’ selection be influenced by politicians? It would never happen in football.
Secondly, I myself would have displayed the same attitude. To this day, certain people who rendered service to Carifesta are yet to be paid. The Theatre Guild is still owed $1.4 million.
Back to Mr. Ramson. For those who do not understand the caption of this column, I used the word ramson in a negative way. It is usually employed in the positive sense. A ramson is a broad type of garlic found only on the European continent. It is thicker and larger than the garlic we get here in Guyana. Garlic is one of life’s most precious and healthy foods. When someone is a political ramson in his party, it is a politician who is important to the preservation of the entity.
Readers of my column would know that I do not consider Ramson to be of this type. On the contrary, based on that particular statement he made to the media, he should have been made to tender his resignation.
I cannot think of any country in this part of the world, in this hemisphere (not even in Cuba or in Chavez’s Government), that the chief legal officer can make such a shocking utterance and keep his Cabinet portfolio. It would never happen in a democracy.
Having done his assessment on the failings of Mr. Darren Sammy to be a retained as a test player for the West Indies, the task of doing a similar exercise for the Jagdeo Cabinet should not prove to be an onerous endeavour for the AG. We can start with the Minister of Agriculture.
The government failed to submit its sugar plans in time to the EU last year and ended up losing billions because of that. What about the Sports Minister, Dr. Anthony and the Carifesta payment imbroglio? Should Minister Lall still be allowed to enjoy a prestigious occupation in any form with the state? And presidential advisor, Lumumba? And Mr. Nirmal Rekha? And what about El Presidente himself?
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