Ramotar’s rampageous, ramentaceous recitation

Mar 15, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Sorry, if my caption sounds highfalutin or too many big words are thrown about. But I honestly feel this title captures the description of President Ramotar’s delivery at the death anniversary of Cheddi Jagan two weeks ago at Babu John in Berbice.
For those simple readers who always warn me not to print big words, I offer a brief definition of the two fancy words used in the caption.
Rampageous means reckless and I believe Mr. Ramotar’s presentation, given the solemn nature of the occasion, was indeed unruly. The definition of ramentaceous is; consisting of ramenta. Ramenta is a piece of something on an object, which belongs to another object and appears to have been neatly shaven off and placed on the first object.
I use it in the context of Ramotar’s 2013 Babu John speech having a piece shaven from Jagdeo’s 2011 Babu John delivery and neatly pasted on to Ramotar’s presentation. Having got definitions out of the way, let’s examine the recklessness in Mr. Ramotar’s tirade
The Stabroek News did a trenchant editorial on Mr. Ramotar’s Babu John sojourn referring to his speech as offensive and beneath his status as President. This is a mild term. Indeed my description of “rampageous” is mild too. It was not only unbecoming for a President to descend to the level that Mr. Ramotar did, but he desecrated the name of Cheddi Jagan in a manner that can be deemed as vulgar.
Why did he stoop to that level? Because he learnt his trade from Bharrat Jagdeo.
Rewind the tape to 2011 at Babu John and it was if Mr. Ramotar had borrowed the speech of Bharrat Jagdeo. My column on that tirade was titled, “I ask Berbicians to have dignity and respect themselves.” One would be shocked to see the similarities.
Jagdeo attacked the media, the publisher of this newspaper and opposition in the identical way Mr. Ramotar did two Sundays ago. The missing link was Moses Nagamootoo. In 2011, Moses was yet to depart from the PPP.
This year, Ramotar took up where Jagdeo left off. Nagamootoo was called an intellectually corrupt jackass. Ramotar once asked me to explain what I meant by the “poetic essence of history” I would like him to explain to me what an “intellectually corrupt jackass” is?
The Babu John conduct of Donald Ramotar and his shameless emulation of the style of Bharrat Jagdeo are yet other colossal signs that Donald Ramotar is not interested in the poetic essence of history and refuses an opportunity to be part of the poetic essence of history.
In analyzing his Babu John indiscretion, the Stabroek News lamented Ramotar’s rejection of the opportunity to present himself as a healer of the nation. My question is whether Ramotar is capable of such qualities in the first place. I don’t mean anything personal and I am truthful about this, but I don’t believe Donald Ramotar has the ability to lead Guyana out of ethnic and political conflict and into the future.
Out of my understanding of history, I do think it is philosophically possible for someone from the PPP to emerge as a phenomenal agent of change. But it will not be Donald Ramotar. I have known Mr. Ramotar a long time, going way beyond thirty-five years. He comes within the Jagan tradition of modest, unassuming and friendly, but not a person known for original thinking, self-confidence, vision and transformational ideas.
This columnist believes that Mr. Ramotar was handpicked by Mr. Jagdeo to lead the PPP into the 2011 general elections because Mr. Jagdeo knew that he, Ramotar, will be more pliable, manageable and servile.
Given Ralph Ramkarran’s status in society, Mr. Jagdeo instantly rejected him because he was uncertain that Ramkarran as President would have played second fiddle to him. Even his relative, Robert Persaud, Mr. Jagdeo was unsure of how it would have played out with Persaud as President. The choice of Ramotar was automatic.
Today, the entire country talks about the obscure role of Mr. Ramotar as President. To ask Mr. Ramotar to become ingenious and display leadership qualities is like asking a village cricketer to go out and break Brian Lara’s record. Life does not witness such miracles. Such miracles do not happen in life.
Mr. Jagdeo himself bowed out without any legacy. Guyanese today still talk about the two giants of Burnham and Jagan even though Jagdeo ruled Guyana for twelve years. Mr. Jagdeo couldn’t surpass them because he didn’t have the qualities to. Mr. Ramotar is just going to fade away after the next general election.
You can’t make a person possess qualities they inherently lack.

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