Back to square one: The Ramotar presidency

Sep 04, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Speaking at the launching of Amerindian Heritage Month, President Ramotar sounded like a PPP leader from twelve years ago. It was the voice of Bharrat Jagdeo with Mr. Ramotar as his ventriloquist. Ramotar appealed for more conciliation and less confrontation in political engagements so as to avoid imperiling national development He advised all political parties to “act responsibly and disregard attempts at political grand-standing and obstructionism”.
One has to be careful with these words because they may lie within the Luncheon framework. It was Luncheon who caused Opposition Leader Desmond Hoyte to pull out of negotiations, after Luncheon exclaimed to the opposition delegates; “Comrades…you are talking to the ruling party.” Hoyte was livid, because for him, it was two stakeholders across a table negotiating social peace and no one was superior to another.
Whenever these types of advocacies come out of the mouths of PPP leaders one has to keep the Luncheon framework in mind. By “conciliatory tone,” “political maturity,” and similar concepts, PPP leaders have in mind opposition politics, not national politics in general. There is no reason to assume that Ramotar means anything different. It is coming close to a year since Ramotar became President and one is yet to see the presidency used in modest, innovative, mature, responsible ways that would not engender social cohesion
When Ramotar speaks of grandstanding and less confrontation, he does mean within the context of the exercise of State power. Presumably he has in mind opposition rhetoric. This is the same President that has not issued a presidential statement on the rabid and morbid racist editorial in the Chronicle. This is the same President that has made the bold claim that the 2011 elections saw features of opposition rigging. This is the same President that is supported by the same journalism we see from the Chronicle and NCN as when Mr. Jagdeo was in power. This is the same President under whose tenure the most senior stalwart of the PPP, Ralph Ramkarran, tendered his resignation about his party’s attitude to him over his calls for action against corruption.
Of course these are all things that have occurred over the past months. One should judge President Ramotar beginning from the time he made his exhortation. He spoke on Saturday evening. This column is being typed on Monday morning. Since Saturday evening, I have not seen or heard any announcement from President Ramotar that he will take the first step in the pursuit of responsible, conciliatory politics. But of course things move slowly at the office of the President, so two days or three days or two weeks may be too early. So instead of rushing Mr. Ramotar, we can suggest early responses in some problematic areas. We would like to believe that such directions will be in the interest of national development.
It should not take too much effort to persuade the opposition to restore funds to NCN if the board can be reorganized to incorporate the presence of not just the opposition, but other major stakeholders like women groups, labour etc. While this is being done, the report on NCN should be laid in Parliament when it reconvenes in October with a view of looking at police action. Isn’t this responsible politics?
It would seem that Guyana no longer has a shortage of skilled personnel. In quick time, the Government found six persons, three to sit on the inquiry team to analyse the electricity rates in Linden, and three to be part of the commission into the police killing of three Linden protestors.
All it takes is the identification of a person to become the Ombudsman. Surely, if the Government can find six experts in little time, it can find an Ombudsman candidate. A fallacy about the Ombudsman is that he/she has to be a retired judge or a lawyer. That is not so. There was an Ombudsman in New Zealand that was not trained in law.
What do I think about all this? Maybe I am an eternal pessimist, but the PPP has been in power for over twenty years and the excesses that even President Burnham would have avoided keep piling up. I saw nothing in the Jagdeo presidency that could have caused me to disregard my pessimism.
Eight months are not eight days. At the end of eight months, Donald Ramotar should have at least done one phenomenal thing, just one, that would have stirred the hopes of the Guyanese people. A leader that lacks imagination himself cannot arouse the imagination of his subjects.

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Back to square one: The Ramotar presidency

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