Ramkarran’s departure from PPP a Dark Day for Guyana - Ramjattan

Ramkarran’s departure from PPP a Dark Day for Guyana – Ramjattan

Jul 02, 2012 News

* “It goes to show that the PPP will stop at nothing to cover up the corruption… look at what they did to such a distinguished gentleman,” Ramjattan

* “Ramkarran will in the eyes of a great many Guyanese, particularly the Jaganites, be remembered as a decent, clean politician,” Nagamootoo

Khemraj Ramjattan

Moses Nagamootoo

“It is a Dark Day in Guyana and its politics, it’s an even darker day for the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP)…It goes to show that the PPP will stop at nothing to cover up the corruption that obviously is there.”
This is according to Alliance for Change (AFC) Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan, who is also a defector and former Central Executive Member of the PPP.
He was loud in praise of now former Central Executive Member and party stalwart Ralph Ramkarran who spoke out against corruption recently.
Ramkarran is the most recent victim of internal pressures from the ruling political party having been forced to resign after he was openly critical of what he called rampant corruption.
The AFC Chairman said that it is heartening to see that there are still some right- thinking persons in the party but lamented the descent to which it has fallen in its treatment of Ramkarran.
He explained that the ruling party finds now itself in one of its gravest indictments thus far.
“It’s a serious indictment on the PPP…look at what they did to such a distinguished gentleman like Ramkarran,” Ramjattan asserted.
The highest ranking party Executive Member to walk from the PPP prior to Ramkarran is another defector, Moses Nagamootoo.
Nagamootoo, like Ramkarran, spent the greater part of his life attached to the PPP.
Nagamootoo in the most somber of tones yesterday told this publication that he understands the “mental anguish” that Ramkarran would have been subjected to.
He said that the pressure comes from those who he had described as the ‘wolf-pack.’
According to Nagamootoo the PPP’s ‘wolf-pack’ is intolerant of criticism and cannot entertain the idea of a person questioning their transparency and accountability.
Nagamootoo told this publication that coming so soon after the “Nagamootoo Tsunami”, Ralph Ramkarran is too big to lose, and he expects that the PPP will soon make him “an indecent proposal.”
Nagamootoo told this publication that it must be understood that “Ramkarran will in the eyes of a great many Guyanese, particularly the ‘Jaganites’ be remembered as a decent, clean politician.

Ralph Ramkarran

He said it took a lot of courage on the part of Ramkarran to tender his resignation to a party with which he has been associated for such a long time.
“It’s never easy to leave an organization to which you have given so much and expect better and to be betrayed in the end,” said Nagamootoo.
He said that a lot was expected of Ramkarran and as he looks to the future a lot is still expected from this “giant of a politician.”
In a public statement yesterday, Nagamootoo said, “The resignation of Ralph Ramkarran from the PPP comes as no surprise, yet it is of great significance for the struggle for decency in public life and clean and accountable governance in Guyana. Like me, Ralph has been with the PPP for literally his entire lifetime being the eldest son of one of the founders, “Boysie” Ramkarran. Ralph best represented a moderate outlook for the PPP, and was seen as a compromise candidate to succeed the late Jagans in both the party and state leadership, which was why I backed him in 2010 when I withdrew from the selection process for a presidential candidate. He was defeated by undemocratic methods and maligned, for taking his concerns about corruption public. This is a cardinal and key “sin”, and it was a matter of time that, like the democrats before, he fell to the axe of the tiny and frightened clique of Stalinists who have hijacked the PPP. They would try to get him back, and would make him debased offers as his resignation has taken the PPP to a point of detour from which there would be no return. “A luta continua!”
Writing in the party’s Mirror Newspaper last month, Ramkarran called corruption “a tax on development, and retards growth and development by a significant degree.”
He warned that the Government ought not to wait for more accusations from the Opposition or more allegations in the press and should immediately initiate discussions with one or more international agencies to seek out assistance in dealing with corruption.
According to party sources, the move by Ramkarran was triggered by abuses from party insiders following Ramkarran’s comments on the need for the party to address allegations of corruption.
On Saturday last, in a one line letter addressed to President Donald Ramotar, who is the party’s General Secretary, Ramkarran said that the resignation is immediate.
“I tender my resignation from the Peoples Progressive Party.”
It was signed “Yours fraternally, Ralph Ramkarran”.
Ramkarran and his family have been around for decades in the party’s hierarchy.
He has been with the party since 1962, becoming a Central Committee member in 1974 and a member of the Central Executive in 1975. He had left Guyana in 1972 to pursue further studies overseas.
His father, Boysie Ramkarran, was a founder member of the PPP, having been a member of the Public Affairs Committee, the forerunner of the PPP.
Ralph Ramkarran has served two terms as Speaker of National Assembly taking over from Martin Zephyr who was elected Speaker when Derek Jagan died.
Ramkarran was one of two persons in the upper level of the party who never worked with government.