Donald Ramotar: Unstable, dangerous or clownish?

Oct 26, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Former President Donald Ramotar, like his former Prime Minister, has taken to writing frequent letters to the press. They write on things that cause you to question their character and decency. Sam Hinds replies to every conceivable critic, but he never penned a line on crucial factors that have now become part of our history.
Hinds will never ever write about what Henry Jeffrey wrote about the Civic Component of the coalition with the PPP after 1992; that it existed in name only. Jeffrey went on to add that when the issue was raised with President Cheddi Jagan about making the Civic Component a substantial, independent body, Jagan didn’t care to have the conversation.
Hinds will never speak on his feeling about the damning allegations made against President Jagdeo by his common-law wife. Hinds will not write on what President Jagdeo did to him, Hinds, when in his presence, Jagdeo humiliated and dismissed the head of the Energy Authority, Joseph O’Lall.
Donald Ramotar published a letter in the Stabroek News of Saturday, October 13, 2018, in which he traced from the sixties up to the present date, the wrong things the PNC did to Guyana. It was a nasty selection. The omission of the PPP’s bad acts was equally nasty. Please see my column of Monday, October 22, 2018, titled, “Animadversions and ululations of a convoluted mind” in which I highlighted the equally wrong things the PPP did to Guyana that equally matched the PNC’s record.
Just to repeat one salient example – Ramotar cites the murder of Walter Rodney in the PNC’s reign, but completely left out the murders of Courtney Crum-Ewing when he, Ramotar, was president, and Ronald Waddell during the tenure of Jagdeo.
Ramotar’s missive is headlined, “The dangers confronting our democracy are of great concern.” He mentioned the shooting to death of two protestors when the PNC was in government in 1973. During election protest, Jagan Ramessar and Bholanauth Parmanand were shot by the security forces. The official enquiry stated that the two men were trying to prevent the army from transporting the ballot boxes during the national election in that year. The report may or may not be biased.
When Ramotar was president, three unarmed demonstrators were shot to death in Linden over protest against a rise in electricity prices. The findings of the official enquiry were quite different from the one in 1973. The verdict was that the men were shot by the police. Who gave the order we may never know, and since we may never know and since Ramotar was president, one may very well ask if it came from the highest levels.
In his missive, Ramotar points to a PPP supporter, Arnold Ramnpersaud. He claims that the PNC government victimized him in jail for three years over a murder charge. Did Ramotar know that his PPP government had Mark Benschop in jail for five years on a treason charge? During the reign of Jagdeo, a man and his wife and their good friend were charged for treason. The main evidence was a fuzzy tape in which the voices were so muffled that it had to be an evil decision to charge those people.
Ramotar became president during the trial, but chose not to drop the case. In fact, this columnist knows that President Ramotar personally intervened and asked a certain lawyer to replace the prosecutor who had left the case. I met the lawyer, whom I knew since we were teenagers, and remonstrated with him. He had a huge tax problem with the GRA.
Here are Ramotar’s own words in his October 13 letter; “However, one of the greatest achievements was the freedom which all our people enjoyed. No one was ever afraid to speak their minds. People criticized without looking over their shoulders to see who was listening.”
Mark Benchop was jailed; three persons were charged for treason; Oliver Hinckson was charged for sedition; I was physically attacked twice and my life was endangered; Waddell was murdered; Crum-Ewing was assassinated; three Lindeners were gunned down; eight gold miners were massacred at Lindo Creek and the security forces were suspected; and this barefaced ex-president could write the following words when his party was in government; “No one was afraid to speak their minds.”
I will end with something I never mentioned before. When I was attacked on the stroke of midnight in July 2012 during the vigil outside of the National Assembly which we referred to as “The People’s Parliament,” the main witness was the security guard at Saint Stanislaus College. He died mysteriously soon after. Ramotar was president then. You think he knows how that man died?

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