Messrs Jagdeo and Ramotar; two incredible men

Nov 03, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I hardly look at the press conferences of our politicians on television, preferring to read their utterances carried in the print media the next day. On Thursday night, I caught Jagdeo speaking at his press meeting and it was a disturbing experience for those who lived through this man’s domination of Guyana. No wonder humans become tragic victims of others who are cunning animals but can appear persuasive.
I read in the media where Joe Harmon held a public meeting on West Demerara to explain the President’s procedural correctness in his appointment of the GECOM chairmanship. I hoped that someone from the audience got up and said to Minister Harmon, “but sir, wasn’t it the president himself who introduced age as a factor to consider in public service? So couldn’t he have picked someone younger than 84 years? And sir, would it not have been wise for the President to consult his coalition partners in APNU and his coalition partner in government when he made his GECOM chair decision?”
It is these kinds of questions that put leaders on the spot and when they encounter such brave souls who refuse to be cajoled by political spin, those leaders will be deterred in treating citizens as brainless animals. It is two and a half years since Jagdeo lost power, and he must have addressed countless meetings, and I doubt a courageous supporter has asked Jagdeo why he sold state lands at Pradoville 2 so cheaply to people who already had house lots and those who could have afforded prevailing market rates, like the then President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr. Compton Bourne. No sugar worker has ever got up at a meeting and asked Komal Chand how he could be a parliamentarian for the ruling party yet serve the interests of sugar workers.
So there was I watching Jagdeo at his press conference saying that the detractors of the PPP accuse it of being racist to African Guyanese. Yet it was under the PPP’s rule in 2012 that the most poisonous racist statement in the history of the state media – print or electronic – was made.
A Chronicle editorial written by an Indian woman who worked in the government service at the time, observed that African youths have been socialized to hate East Indians and that explains why they attack Indian people all the time. This statement had to apply of course to my African nieces and nephews who never harmed a fly. The woman remained in her job and today works with the PPP, of which Jagdeo is the leader.
Mr. Jagdeo has made the most virulent racist statement in the history of political campaigns in this country, when in 2015 he told his supporters that if the PNC won the 2015 poll their homes would be invaded and they would be robbed and brutalized (he used a terrible word that I cannot repeat here). It was clear to every sane human in Guyana who heard that exclamation that Jagdeo meant Black people. As President, he never apologized for that diseased rhetoric.
We come to a letter in the press yesterday written by former president, Donald Ramotar. It was this man who headed the government when that Chronicle editorial was published. Ramotar and the writer of that editorial are very close friends. What kind of substance is Ramotar made of? His letter goes back to the era of the PNC under 1964-1992 and asserts there was no morality in public office. You would not believe it if you were from another planet and were told that it was this man who was President when that Chronicle editorial came out.
Kwame McCoy was press liaison to President Donald Ramotar. Yet in 2010 before he became President and when he was the General Secretary of the ruling PPP, in a recorded interview with Mark Benschop, Ramotar said he does not read anything McCoy writes. But he found it fit and proper to retain McCoy as his press liaison.
This is the same Ramotar who wrote a public letter yesterday with the caption; “Guyanese of all political views must join the fight to promote integrity in public life.” In that missive, Ramotar told us; “With the return of democracy, the PPP/C administration did a lot to try to clean-up public life.” Really!
It was under Ramotar’s presidency that Henry Greene functioned as Commissioner of Police. This same Ramotar gave the eulogy at the funeral of Greene and extolled the virtue of a Police Commissioner who in my view was the most corrupt head of the police force in the history of the British West Indies. Ramotar is nothing but a hypocrite.

Latest News

Messrs Jagdeo and Ramotar; two incredible men

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| April, 4th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Barber’s car set on fire

President’s College upstage Santa Rosa to...

CWI withdraws penalty on John Campbell following...

‘One Guyana’ 3×3 Quest Basketball opens...

GCA, East Coast surge to huge wins

GFF/Concacaf kick off two-day Match Commissioners...

Features/Columnists

Bandits document robberies, then pose with loot on TikTok

The U.S. “Joining” the Commonwealth: an unreasonable expectation

Access to information should not come to this

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Messrs Jagdeo and Ramotar; two incredible men

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| April, 4th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]