Jagdeo gave it; Jagdeo took it back--Freddie Kissoon

ULY 7, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

Mr. Ralph Ramkarran informed us that in the vote in the PPP Central Committee to choose the Opposition Leader, Mr. Ramotar secured nine votes out of 35 and thus was defeated by Mr. Jagdeo. It meant that Ramotar got eight other votes since obviously he voted for himself (I hope). Knowing how Mr. Jagdeo controls the PPP, there would not have been an open vote with members raising their hands. Secret ballots never took place in the PPP’s internal elections in its 35-member Central Committee and its 15- member executive committee. But even if there was a visible voting system Mr. Ramotar would have lost anyway. Three reasons explain this. When Mr. Ramotar was President it would have been foolish to kowtow to Ramotar and be openly hostile to Mr. Jagdeo because the Ramotar presidency was controlled by Jagdeo. So if Mr. Jagdeo wanted to get you transferred from your job or put someone over you it would have happened even though you were a Ramotar stooge. In other words, if you were looking for perks under the Ramotar presidency it was best to seek out Jagdeo than the President himself. Those central committee members who raised their hands and chose Jagdeo over Ramotar acted out of self-preservation. If Jagdeo had lost, he would have become vindictive to those he knew rejected him and there was nothing Ramotar could have done. The Central Committee decided that a vote for Ramotar was a vote for Jagdeo anyway so why not go for the real McKoy. Secondly, with the exception of Komal Chand of GAWU, the sugar union and Desmond Kissoon, the other 33 members of the Central Committee (including Ramotar himself) owe their social elevation and financial standing to Bharrat Jagdeo. Rohee, Gail Teixeira and Luncheon were all there before Jagdeo became President but Jagdeo retained all three, even elevating Teixeira by upping her salary with the new title of Presidential Advisor on Governance. During the 2014 budget debate, it was revealed that Ms. Teixeira’s salary was over a million dollars a month, less than what she would have been paid as a Cabinet Minister (see Kaieteur News, April, 16, 2014) There was every reason for 32 of those 35 members of the Central Committee to vote for Jagdeo over Ramotar. Ramotar himself should have given way to Jagdeo because he owes it to Jagdeo for making him President of Guyana. Ramotar will get a handsome pension package because of Jagdeo. It was silly for Ramotar to have competed with Jagdeo to become Leader of the Opposition because he simply did not have the votes even if the balloting was secret. There was every practical reason for those 32 mandarins to select Jagdeo because they have benefited some immensely, from his twelve-year-old presidency. Important to note is that after Jagdeo left the presidency, all of his Cabinet colleagues were retained by President Ramotar. So identical was the Ramotar Cabinet to Jagdeo’s that Guyanese came to accept that Ramotar was just a figurehead. From the time of the PPP’s 30th congress at Port Mourant in August 2013 to the day he lost, power, Ramotar relied on the Jagdeo appointees to help him run the government. In fact, many of these Jagdeo appointees were making policies under the Ramotar presidency that were independent of the President himself. During his three years of the presidency, Mr. Ramotar produced not even one gifted protégé or invented any breath-taking policies. It was three years of exasperating mediocrity. Finally, for 32 members of that Central Committee there were sound political reasons to choose Donald Ramotar over Jagdeo. They saw Ramotar’s performance for decades as the General-Secretary of the PPP and three years as President. They knew this was not a politician without any kind of quality. He was boring, inane and completely lacked leadership qualities. The PPP Central Committee wants someone to make the PPP strong and to shape it to re-acquire power in 2020. When they looked around for such a person, they would have accepted anyone except Ramotar. Can you blame them?