The time a donkey rigged a country’s national election

Sep 16, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Opposition Leader, David Granger, said last week that Donald Ramotar is the weakest President Guyana has produced since Independence. You don’t need a high school education to understand what he meant. Mr. Granger didn’t include nature of rule. That was not what he wanted to convey.
There are deep conceptual differences between a bad ruler and a weak one. Hitler was maniacal but he was one of the strongest head of government history produced. Jimmy Carter is one of my favourite American politicians but he was a weak president. Ramotar as person will never be as terrible a president as the Caribbean’s worst head of government – Bharrat Jagdeo.
It would be unfair to label Mr. Ramotar as a sadistic ruler as people say of the man who Guyanese refer to as the Champion of Dirt. But Ramotar is definitely a shockingly weak governor. Long before Granger publicly stated that Ramotar has been Guyana’s weakest president, I observed in several columns that he will end up being an ordinary, inane, barren president. Here are two extracts.
In my November 21, 2012 column, I wrote, “Ramotar is the type of politician who lived his entire political life in the shadows of people inside the PPP. He felt and still feels (that these people) are the creme de la crème of the PPP. He worships these people and accepts their superior thinking.
“It is not that he is afraid to make changes and be his own man. He does not think he should be his own man when there are others in the PPP that can take the PPP and the government to heights he cannot move them into. In other words, Donald Ramotar is not interested in a legacy, has no dream of surpassing the two historical icons (Burnham and Jagan) and has no intention of coveting a historical page for himself.”
In my May 7, 2013 piece, I stated; “I never thought Ramotar was of admirable political material though as a person he was sociable and likeable. I believe he still is. I believe he is still one of the less arrogant persons in politics (he is not arrogant at all) Ramotar as a political animal is another kettle of fish. He is not a politician with leadership qualities. He never has such abilities.”
He will be like this until the PPP replaces him in the forthcoming elections. And there will be more emanations from him that will highlight what an empty, weak politician he is. In fact one can say that he started out his presidency on a note of high foolishness. Days after the PPP won back executive power in the 2011 poll, Ramotar publicly accused the opposition of rigging the elections.
Whichever person in the opposition fixed the elections; he had to be a donkey. Only a donkey (I’m not sure cause even a donkey might do better) will rig an election and lose it. The opposition votes were just one and a half percent more than the PPP’s. The PPP won the plurality and is in power continuing where Jagdeo left off.
It was really silly for Ramotar to have said that but from November 2011 he has demonstrated a total lack of intellectual finesse. Coupled with his weakness, he will certainly help in the inevitable defeat of the PPP next year. The presidency is in the hands of about seven persons – Jagdeo, Rohee, Luncheon, Teixeira, Irfaan Alli, Ashni Singh and Nandlall.
Each one in this cabal makes policies and embarks on directions that he/she wants to with the exception of Jagdeo who goes through a third party in the Cabinet or the PPP when he wants the adoption of a certain course of action.
In this scenario which began as early as the beginning of 2012, Ramotar’s shadow is not even present. It may sound far-fetched and unbelievable but so uninterested in stately matters is Ramotar that he is overjoyed to be saturated with ceremonies, country visits and foreign trips. This is the way the man sees the presidency.
Those seven names mentioned above know this and this is why they give themselves the latitude to pursue interest-areas without Ramotar’s input.
Political observers feel that Priya Manickchand didn’t even consult Ramotar on her politically disastrous trip in the house of the American Ambassador. Luncheon took it on himself to support Manickchand with his ‘feral blast’ comment. And the story goes on. One could well imagine, Ramotar, on hearing and seeing these things, probably says to himself, “Let dem try deh. I got a foreign visit to look after.”

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