Sadly, Mr. Ramotar is throwing it away

Aug 28, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There are two persons who spoke to me on President Ramotar when the country knew he would be the next President. One was the owner of this newspaper, Mr. Glenn Lall. Mr. Lall asked to speak to me and I visited him in his office. I remember the day very well. It was an afternoon. I sat, while he stood when speaking all the time.
The conversation was formal and there were hardly any jokes and smiles. Mr. Lall said to me; “Look, I know the way you feel about the PPP and I see all the things you have written, all these years but I want to tell you that Donald Ramotar will prove you wrong.” Mr. Lall continued, “Freddie, I know what I am saying; he is different. He will change the way Jagdeo ran this country.” I swear on my parents’ grave, I listened and I simply said to Mr. Lall, “Well let’s see what happens.”
I honestly felt that Mr. Lall called me in his office because he was convinced there were bound to be changes in my column direction because Mr. Ramotar was the person that was going to transform Guyana in ways that would make the style and tradition of the Freddie Kissoon Column different from how it evolved.
I cannot name the other person, because I don’t think he would want me to identify him. I cannot even state the place where the conversation occurred because that would give it away. He is one of the longest serving servants of the PNC and one that is generally regarded in Guyana as one of the quality persons the PNC as an organization has produced over the past forty years. That is as far as I will go.
We were talking about the PPP in Government and I expressed fear of the bad things that may continue under Ramotar and this is what he said; “Nah, Donald is not like that.” That was all he said, and he referred to Ramotar by his first name. At that point he left me to speak to someone who requested his presence.
Apart from these two gentlemen, there are the public words about Donald Ramotar by my dead friend, Vic Puran. I shared a long friendship with Puran and though we were not buddy pals at all, the long years (forty) did make us see each other as friends who respected and liked each other. Months before he died, Vic Puran published a letter in this newspaper openly calling for opposition critics to talk to Mr. Ramotar and try to work with him because as Puran put it at the time, “He is a good man.”
Speaking for myself, I would say before the PPP Government descended into really unjustified, authoritarian behaviour, Donald Ramotar and I were on very good terms. His wife and I spoke very friendly to each other whenever we met. During the times I taught his daughter at UG, we would have many, profound conversations on Guyanese politics and during those talks I can honestly say that nothing she said was ever of a complexion that caused me not to believe that she was below the narrow partisanship and sordid culture of the PPP. In fact I can say that her views were above such partisanship and such a culture.
With each passing day, Ramotar is moving further and further away from the person that Mr. Lall, Vic Puran and that PNC cadre spoke so highly of. The latest stumble was at Cotton Tree in Region Five when he used the words “jackass thinking” in response to a certain critic of the present imbroglio over hydropower. In that same speech, Mr. Ramotar seems to be content with using a Jagdeoite style.
This is what is so disconcerting about Mr. Ramotar. You are not seeing a Ramotar style, a particular Ramotar angle. You are witnessing a typical, inflexible, Jagdeoite flow. At Cotton Tree, it was Jagdeo in full battle dress. The Kaieteur News and Stabreoek News were lambasted. One of the saddest points in that address for me is when he said in reference to the Marriott Hotel construction that for the first time Guyana will have a five star hotel.
When I read that, UG flew into my mind right away. I say most sincerely the thought just came immediately to mind that we would have a five star hotel, but the country’s only university is dying. How could you compare the two? As I pen this column, the news has arrived that Canada reintroduced the processing of visa and sponsorship applications in Guyana. Less hassle for those leaving.

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Sadly, Mr. Ramotar is throwing it away

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