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He is the best person to lead a third party is 2020

Mar 19, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
I read the exchange between Christopher Ram and Tacuma Ogunseye about the coming of the third party and wasn’t surprised at the news. It was bound to happen. Once the AFC got overtaken by the PNC, once the PNC did not live up to expectations, and once the PPP did not throw up new leadership, a third party was in the making. All the signs are pointing to its formation. There are several letters in the press about its coming and names like Nigel Hughes and Freddie Kissoon as the likely candidates to lead the list.
When one searches Guyana to find a presentable candidate to lead a third party, there is no one near to Ralph Ramkarran. The name Freddie Kissoon is obvious to anyone. But my preference would be Ralph Ramkarran. Here are my reasons for opting for Ralph than Freddie Kissoon. If I was to choose between the two as to who is popular and most admired, my pick would be Freddie. As a person without baggage, as a multi-racial person, as Guyanese who fights for rights over wrongs, as a modest, humble academic/activist, Freddie stands alone. His record is larger than life. My strong opinion is that except for Walter Rodney who paid the ultimate price, Freddie Kissoon has endured more state victimization than any other Guyanese.
Leading a political party, winning an election and becoming a policy-maker, is another thing altogether. While I admire the idealism and courage of Freddie Kissoon, I certainly do not support his ideological politics. It has no place in government. This is where I see Ralph Ramkarran as an unbeatable candidate in 2020. More of the ordinary folks and the university type would vote for Freddie. I don’t think Freddie would pick up even one vote from the business class and the middle class people throughout Guyana.
The middle classes in Guyana would not accept the ideological types like Freddie Kissoon. You cannot keep up with the writings of Freddie (to do a column seven days a week is remarkable) and because his views are so voluminous you can easily gleam what types of beliefs he has. Freddie hates the middle classes and the wealthy classes. He takes his acceptance of the working class too far. He goes beyond what is radically acceptable. These sections of society would not support a Freddie Kissoon as a presidential candidate. If there are plans for this, then the movers and shakers behind the third party better scuttle those plans as soon as possible. Freddie Kissoon may be Guyana’s Don Quixote and rightly so. My description of him is the Guyanese Don Quixote in hippie clothes with a hippie hair style. I love Freddie as he is at the moment. Don’t move from that niche, Freddie. From that niche, you have become a national hero.
Any reconfiguration of Guyanese politics has to start with Ralph Ramkarran. My bet is that he is going to be the presidential candidate of that third party. Ralph has all the prerequisites to lead a third party. It would be insulting to Ralph to list his curriculum vitae in this letter. I cannot see which Guyanese (other than Freddie Kissoon which I have discounted) can come close to him if he was to throw his hat in the ring for 2020. Where Freddie Kissoon is strong on ideological beliefs and philosophical dreams, Ralph is a pragmatist par excellence. Ralph would reach out to every section of the Guyanese nation, and would find acceptance from every section of the Guyanese society.
What I think Ralph will do is to retain the 10 percent AFC votes, retain the PPP votes and slice off PNC votes and Amerindian votes. From all that we have been hearing, it looks like the third party will come into the political arena but I do not know if Ralph Ramkarran has been approached. Names we are hearing about are Freddie Kissoon, Christopher Ram, and Nigel Hughes. Those are names can and will win the 2020 elections but only if led by Ralph Ramkarran.
Deonarine Karran

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