Ramotar was given a lesson in his relative impotence when the state paper published this story

Mar 23, 2014 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Imagine that a new prefect is chosen to maintain order in a class in the schoolyard, one in which the former prefect lords it over a group of unruly boys.  Now, imagine that former prefect, now the schoolyard bully, gets one of his henchmen to throw a stone which hits the prefect in his head, and he does nothing about it.  The henchman then takes the same stone to the class weakling and orders that weakling to throw it at the prefect, which the weakling does, again hitting the prefect in the head.  The difference is, this time the prefect calls in the weakling and slaps him for throwing the stone.
That scenario is essentially what played out over the past few days in Guyana.  Days before Donald Ramotar’s beleaguered administration is set to present what threatens to be the most contentious budget in the history of the PPP’s twenty two years in government, the ‘results’ of a clearly concocted poll appear in the Guyana Times, owned by former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s good friend Bobby Ramroop, declaring that Jagdeo is by far the best PPP candidate for the next general elections.  It is useful to note here that not only is Jagdeo constitutionally barred from running again, but also that Ramotar is barely halfway through his own first term – that is the stone first being thrown, and prefect Ramotar does nothing.  The next day, the same stone is thrown, this time by a different hand but really under the same direction – the story appears in the Guyana Chronicle.  This time, however, the lead editorial staffers on duty at the time are called in to Office of the President and at the end of it, Linda Rutherford, acting Editor-in-Chief is demoted.
There was only one value in that fiasco – it was to show Donald Ramotar, in the midst of what is a massive PR crisis buffeting his administration, that he had no effective control over a crucial component of the machinery available to any president, the media.  Indeed, Ramotar effectively has no direct influence upon any mass media entity in Guyana – the Guyana Times is loyal to Jagdeo, and the Chronicle’s present structure was consolidated under Jagdeo, as was NCNs, and was GINA’s; even the composition of the Office of the President staffing is largely the former president’s.
Donald Ramotar’s fatal flaw is that while he was essentially cocooned both physically and ideologically inside Freedom House, Mr. Jagdeo built up a complex and effective superstructure of private sector interests, party apparatchiks and strategic state postings that allow him effective control over what is supposed to be a Ramotar administration.  Therefore, even though (as I have been reliably informed) the original article earned the President’s ire, he was given a lesson in his relative impotence when the state paper, which comes under his direct purview as Minister of Information, published the same story, and even with his nephew as Editor-in-Chief.
The PPP is imploding, and the society crumbling along with it.  The party’s undeniable fear of local government elections is understandable considering that, for example, two of its core support demographics, the sugar and rice industries, are currently in a state of what is effectively rebellion, and despite two industry reps, Komal Chand and Dharamkumar Seeraj respectively, being PPP MPs.  No member of Ramotar’s cabinet, which is basically the Jagdeo cabinet redux, has escaped the stain of either incompetence or impropriety, very often neither; indeed, the only significant cabinet appointment made by Ramotar, Ganga Persaud, only recently resigned in a cloud of scandal.
To quote a popular television show, power resides only where men believe it resides, and increasingly the public is being shown that the power of the presidency of Guyana does not reside in the person of Donald Ramotar, despite his occupation of the office.
The demotion of Linda Rutherford for an article she was not responsible for, and which she would have allowed to be published only because acquiescence to official orders from above is what is the determinant for both ascension and survival in the state media, is to willfully ignore the source of the problem.  It is the prefect being pelted under instruction of the schoolyard bully, and beating up on the weakling that was ordered to throw the stone.   In short, Mr. Ramotar was proven to be weak and only conveniently reactionary in the face of clear and unequivocal provocation and preening by his predecessor.
I am no fan of his party, and while I find him affable in person, I am certainly no admirer of the politics of Mr. Ramotar.  That said, he is the elected President of Guyana and I find the brazen moves to undermine his authority from within, and in favour of vested interests, to be far more sinister and dangerous to the democratic process than he claims the elected legislature, in which his government is a minority, to be.  It is time that the President realistically recognizes and acknowledges his position – both his weakness within the body politic of his own administration, and the tremendous powers invested in his office – and seek out strategic alliances both inside the alienated old guard of his own party, as well as outside of his political and philosophical comfort zone.   In too many circles he is already seen as Guyana’s version of Dmitry Medvedev, a presidential placeholder for the real power behind the thrown – if he fails to counter this, both his image and his authority will continue to be undermined with impunity.
Ruel Johnson

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