At some point in the future, Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran will indicate whether he would like to be a presidential candidate for the 2011 general election, but at present he does not want to divert attention from nation building under the incumbent head of state.
Asked recently whether he would be interested in running for the presidency given the fact that this is President Bharrat Jagdeo’s final term and in a survey of twelve PPP/C MPs last year nine had seen him as a viable candidate, Ramkarran told the Stabroek News that he was very honoured that several of his colleagues had expressed confidence in him, but at this time he did not wish to join in the speculation.
He said that currently, “it would divert attention from the issues that need attention by putting before the public those that are not going to be helpful in allowing the President to conclude his tasks.”
Jagdeo, he said, had still three-and-a-half years in office with a heavy agenda as outlined in the PPP/C manifesto, and he had a lot of challenges which were now facing the country to deal with.
In addition, in any country where heads of government were subject to term limits, they appeared to lose their effectiveness towards the end of their tenure because of a preoccupation with the question of who would be taking over. This was especially true of the United States, he said.
“That time could be vastly expanded if there is too much early speculation as to who his successor would be, and lead to the diminishing of the President’s authority,” he said.
Pressed as to whether he would like to be a nominee, he said, his duties in the National Assembly, which he took very seriously, were overwhelming. “Therefore I would at some time in the future give an answer to that question,” he said.
Apart from that, many senior PPP leaders had always frowned on public expressions of ambitions, recalling that two years ago, there had been quite considerable consternation when one of his colleagues and good friends mentioned his availability to the rest of the executive of the party for the top leadership position.
For those reasons, he said, he would prefer to remain committed to the success of the work of the National Assembly and devote his exclusive attention to that until the time for nominations drew near. (Miranda La Rose)