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THE HAND THAT STEADIED THE CRADLE

Sep 06, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Donald Ramotar could have walked into any of the PPP governments since 1992. That he was not part of any of those governments has nothing to do with the lack of confidence in his ability, but more to do with an important role to which he was assigned: tending to the affairs of the party.
The PPP had learnt from its experience in the 1950s and 1960s, when the demands of government affected party organization.
The PPP did not do as well as it ought to in 1964, partly because of the unrest at the time, but more because organizationally it was weakened, given the demands placed on its leaders by having to govern the country.
Were it not for the superb organizational talents of Janet Jagan the PPP would never have been able, after it lost power, to develop and keep its party machinery intact.
From experience the PPP knew that holding the reins of political office would deplete the human resources available for party work and that this could be costly.
Burnham understood this, too, because he also had felt the effects of having most his party’s leaders be part of his governments. In order to counter this and allow for the use of State resources to finance his party, Burnham fused the office of General Secretary of his party within the Ministry of National Mobilization.
When the PPP came to power in 1992, there was pressure on Cheddi to have his wife become a Minister. But Cheddi was not keen on the idea of a husband and wife team being part of his new government, even though his wife was part of the pre-independence PPP governments. He also knew that because of the passage of time, Janet Jagan was no longer the formidable political organizer that she was in the 1950s and 1960s.
However, she could still play a key role in ensuring that the propaganda aspects of the party, through editorship of the Mirror newspaper, were maintained.  As such she was assigned this role, but needed someone to shoulder the organizational burden of the party.
That role could only be entrusted to a competent loyalist. And Donald Ramotar was the person so identified and thus to be groomed as the eventual successor as General Secretary. This is how highly he was thought of within the PPP.
His personality was suited to that role. He has always been a mender of fences and was seen by the entire PPP leadership as trustworthy. This is obvious. There were many other leaders of the PPP who were far senior in terms of membership and recognition within the party.
There were quite a few political heavyweights within the PPP at the time, and since they were around longer than Donald Ramotar and were not old men, they would have been given the edge in any competition for ministerial positions.
However, there was no competition within the PPP for ministerial or government positions because of two factors. The first was as a result of the fallout with the WPA after they made “styles” with Cheddi’s offer to have Clive Thomas as his Minister of Planning and Development. The absence of a multi-party government effectively removed any competition within the ruling party for government jobs.
The second and most instructive factor that led to his absence within the government was that having had to devote so many of its senior leaders within the government, the PPP needed a steady hand to control the party.
This was an important task, because the PPP understood that their future electoral chances would be weakened if they did not keep the party intact while they were in government. When it came to someone to entrust the management of the party’s affairs to, Donald Ramotar was the favoured choice. He never objected. He never asked for high office.  This shows his unselfish attitude towards power and prestige.
Donald Ramotar did an excellent job in keeping the party intact, in attending to its businesses while the other senior leaders were preoccupied with the work of government. He was successful at this task and therefore was virtually elected unopposed as General Secretary of the party.
Today he is the President of Guyana.

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