Who is the first person to throw off the cloak?

Dec 07, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

In his inauguration address after being sworn in as President, Mr. Ramotar urged the nation to throw off the cloak of partisanship. Subsequently, his new Cabinet was announced. I am at a loss to understand the meaning of the word “new” in relation to this Cabinet.
On the front page of both independent dailies the word “new” was used. In the mundane sense, it means literally that the person was not in the process or the organization before and has now become a part thereof.
There could be another meaning to “new” depending on the perspective you have and I rather suspect that the usual meaning could be misleading. Mr. Ganga Persaud is a new face in the Cabinet but he is very much an accustomed visage in the PPP leadership. He is a member of the highest decision-making structure of the PPP, the Central Committee (CC).
Mr. Persaud is more deeply involved and for a longer time in PPP politics than Dr. Ashni Singh and Carolyn Burkett. The same thing can be said of Anil Nandlall.
Then there is Alli Baksh. Like Persaud and Nandlall, he is a CC member and very active for a long time in the PPP. The other two “new” faces may not be that new at all. Few persons in the society will argue that Juan Edghill was objective and impartial in his role in the Ethnic Relations Commission. And few persons in Guyana will argue that Nanda Gopaul was not close to the Jagdeo regime.
Gopaul’s role in the New Building Society (NBS) and the structure of the leadership of the NBS will certainly attract the attention of the next Parliament. So what is my point? That a quintessential PPP Cabinet was installed. There is nothing wrong with that. I honestly feel that the AFC and APNU would not have responded immediately to President Ramotar’s request for inclusion because they would have needed time to consult.
Also, they would not have accepted Cabinet posts unless it was in a constitutional framework rather than just being in the Cabinet under a PPP leadership. But where does this leave the cloak of partisanship. Under the Constitution, Parliament has to be summoned one month after the date of the election. It means we will see Parliament in motion on December 28.
Will APNU and AFC throw off the cloak of partisanship? We cannot answer since we have to wait for their behavioral manoeuvres when Parliament is convened. For now if we are looking to see if the cloak will come over, we have to peep in the corridors of power.
My personal feeling is that President Ramotar retained too many of Mr. Jagdeo’s previous Cabinet colleagues. And some of his “new” faces are persons who worked closely with Mr. Jagdeo. Nandlall was his lawyer and Gopaul his Permanent Secretary. Was that the way to go if you are asking for the end to narrow attitudes?
Would it not have been wiser to send a signal that you will not follow the Jagdeo path by at least introducing some real new faces, new in the innovative sense of the word?
Let’s return to the cloak. Since we have to remove the fabric of bias in our political life, as urged by the President, then until December 28, we have to start with the Executive and by extension his jurisdiction. But the signs are not encouraging if we examine NCN and the Guyana Chronicle since President Jagdeo assumed the presidency. It is business as usual.
The Chronicle is its usual partisan self with a continuation of sickening letters written by anonymous persons. And of course the letters are unsavoury condemnations of critics of the PPP.
Surely, this is a terrible start to the era of bipartisanship. How can the Guyanese people expect unbiased rulership from the PPP Government when old habits are still there in places where we expect changes that will engender optimism?
If we are to throw off the cloak of partisanship, then the PPP Government must start doing so.
The President and the Cabinet cannot accuse APNU Parliamentarians and AFC legislators of putting narrow political interest in front of the future of the country when there is no Parliament as yet. But why do we have to wait for changes in the style and deportment of the state media?
The renovation or more appropriately, the transformation, should have begun after the President was sworn in. I am not going to accept the continuation of the nasty vilification of my character by the Chronicle. That era came to an end on November 28, 2011.

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Who is the first person to throw off the cloak?

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