Ramjattan ‘tekking nuff jumbie’ lashes

Oct 07, 2019 Freddie Kissoon, News

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After reading what Khemraj Ramjattan said last Monday about the possibility and probability of becoming the APNU+AFC’s prime ministerial candidate, I concluded that the issue was settled. That conclusion would have been reached by any person based on the strong, self-confident words of Ramjattan.
I quote from my column; “Has Ramjattan finally defeated Nagamootoo?” of Wednesday, October 4, 2019; “A high profile leader in government cannot at the commonsensical level speak so reassuringly of an offer that he will receive without having any knowledge at all that he is likely to have it.
“The damage to his credibility will be permanent if he is rejected. My interpretation is that based on how Ramjattan spoke to the reporters, he has been accepted by the PNC as Granger’s running mate.”
The way Ramjattan expressed himself when speaking on the subject to reporters was clear that there was acceptance of him from the PNC. I knew the PNC had deep and extensive reservations about his PM candidacy but after reading what he said last Monday, I thought the controversy was over. It is not. So why did Ramjattan open his mouth?
Two new factors are now in operation. First, the President does not accept the adumbration of the AFC that the configurations of the Cummingsburg Accord put the PM slot in automatic gear. He said he will not pronounce on his running mate because that assignment is under discussion.
Unless grammar has become an esoteric subject that no English-speaking person can understand it, Granger is saying that the PM identification is not a done deal and is being negotiated by APNU and AFC teams.
Unless grammar is so complex that no one can understand it, then, the AFC’s pronouncement on what the Cummingsburg Accord stipulates in relation to the PM candidacy does not synchronise with the President’s position. Enter Basil Williams.
The die has now been cast. Williams’s outline is that the president selects his running mate. He told reporters it is the remit of the president to choose the prime ministerial candidate.
Here are the words of Williams, “We will be undermining President Granger who has the remit to make such an appointment”. If Williams is correct then the PM slot cannot be an item for discussion in the ongoing dialogue between APNU and AFC to revamp the Accord.
Prior to Williams’s explicit explanation, it was Granger himself who subtly hinted that the AFC will be unable to select the PM. He stated that the contents of the Cummingburg Accord must accord with what the constitution requires. In other words, when the Accord is revamped, it cannot include forms of decision-making that are not in adherence with the constitution.
Maybe a hypothetical example should clarify the situation. If the constitution says the governor of Region One must be appointed by the CARICOM Secretariat, then no amount of negotiations between the APNU and AFC will yield any fruits if the AFC has a person in mind to be the governor. The APNU will tell the AFC it cannot accept its request because it conflicts with the constitution.
If the constitution empowers the president to select a prime minister, then it is senseless to have the PM slot on the agenda in the current dialogue to revamp the Cummingsburg Accord.
If President Granger has the constitutional authority to pick his prime minister, then for the AFC to identify a PM candidate, is tantamount to derecognising the president’s jurisdictions. I get the distinct impression that both Granger and Williams are making this point contention.
Granger and Williams have dealt some big ‘jumbie’ lashes to Ramjattan who opened his mouth last Monday and boasted that in all probability, he will be named as the PM candidate.
The die has been cast – the president will choose who his running mate is but there is still hope for Ramjattan. Granger can pick him.
Will Granger select him? The answer is a reverberating no. There are compelling reasons why the PNC will not go with Ramjattan. But the reasons are equally potent as to why it will not go with even another AFC nominee except Nagamootoo who the PNC feels is no longer AFC material.
There are volcanic debates in the PNC war room, that in the event of a Granger victory but he retires before 2025, if the AGC does not do a Sam Hinds in Guyana, then a small party that maybe didn’t even get three seats in the 2020 election, gets its man to become president.
Sam Hinds agreed to vacate the presidency because he accepted the principle that the non-elected civic component should not have the presidency. The AFC needs to stop its self-fooling masquerade.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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