The NTA was bypassed when Ralph Ramkarran applied for the lease

Jan 03, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The National Trust Act (NTA) was absurdly bypassed altogether when CJRC principal, Ralph Ramkarran, still then a PPP member, would ‘successfully’ – a few months after the 2011 election – apply for a lease under Cap 59:01, a manouevre which, while clever, could only be validated if either there was explicit ministerial permission granted (from either Ramotar, or Anthony as designated by him) under the NTA, or Red House was at some point stripped of its national heritage site designation and could no longer be considered protected under the NTA.
It should be noted that none of the PPP’s legal luminaries, Anil Nandlall in particular, have dared to mention the issue of Cap. 20:03 since it is inherently fatal to whatever public argument they are trying to make, and certainly would be to any such representation in a court of law.
Whatever the mechanism, the transfer of a national heritage site to a political party’s front company was a massive betrayal of both the National Trust, the entity responsible for built heritage preservation, and the national trust, the implicit responsibility of government to protect national patrimony.  This deceit did not merely include PPP as a party but also government officers whose responsibility was to uphold the tenets of both.  Jagdeo might have refused to offer his permission under the NTA because he does not like to get his hands dirty, but to the effect that he did not quash the original application outright, he is complicit.
Gail Teixeira, whose failures as a Minister of Culture are increasingly apparently, however well-disguised, would have been the responsible Minister under whose tenure this travesty was originally perpetuated.  Her effective successor, Dr. Frank Anthony, under whose incompetent management we saw the accelerated degradation or outright destruction of prime built heritage sites, from City Hall to the Umana Yana to the New Amsterdam Hospital, was the sitting Minister at the time the 2012 lease would have been issued.  And Donald Ramotar of course, at all times being a party to this travesty, is equally responsible.
Most insidious however, and herein we have evidence of a deliberate conspiracy to perpetuate Red House under effectively eternal PPP control, would be the role of Dr. James Rose.   At the time the CJRC would have been established, Rose was serving as Executive Chairman (1999-2000) of the National Trust.  At the time that Ramotar as director of CJRC would have been applying for Jagdeo to sign off on a lease agreement between the National Trust and CJRC management, Rose would not only have been a principal of that entity, but would also have been simultaneously serving as Chairman of the Board of the National Trust.
At the time the 2012 lease would have been issued to CJRC Inc, he would have been serving as Director of Culture (DOC), operationally responsible not only for the National Trust, but for heritage protection and preservation policy in general.  Herein we have a textbook conflict of interest operating as business as usual, something that should have resulted in Rose’ immediate dismissal as DOC since this issue was first raised over a year ago, an oversight that has fortunately since been corrected.
The illicit transfer of Red House, a national heritage site sitting on several lots of prime real estate, has nothing to do with perpetuating the memory of a man known for his frugality and humility.  It has everything to do with the Jagdeoite PPP using that memory as a fig leaf for the appropriation of valuable state property at the expense of national patrimony, something the current administration would have failed to recognize when it entered into ‘negotiations’ with CJRC/PPP over a year ago.  While I was in disagreement with that approach, I applaud His Excellency, President Granger on now taking swift and decisive action in not only retaking control of Red House but in assigning it to house the National Trust, the very institution that was deliberately bypassed in this fiasco.
I believe, going forward, that the state should support the establishment of a Cheddi Jagan Research Centre in an apt location, whether a new facility funded by his indecently wealthy successors or as part of a general complex dedicated to our past presidents.  Any negotiation at this point with the PPP however should simply be about taking precaution in moving Dr. Jagan’s papers and other artefacts to a safe and suitable location in a timely manner so as the facilitate the movement of the National Trust into Red House – I’m sure there is adequate temporary space in Dr. Jagdeo’s seaside mansion compound.
In closing, for the record, while I understand the PPP’s desperate false opprobrium vigil/protest, predictably led by Jagdeo and Teixeira, any counter-protest involving opposing political party supporters is not only a recipe for disaster but it does precisely what the PPP wants, which is to obfuscate the issues at hand and project this as some extension of the apparently eternal struggle between the PPP and the PNC.  This does a disservice to the decision taken by President Granger and diminishes what is the sort of strong, moral, ethical presidential action his critics have accused him of not engaging enough of in the first place.
Ruel Johnson
Cultural Policy Advisor
Government of Guyana

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