Dear Editor,

I should like to clarify remarks to the effect that I would not be available for the position of Speaker in 2011 contained in a report in the Sunday Stabroek of April 5 (Two terms enough – Speaker says will step down in 2011).  To become Speaker a person has to be nominated and then elected by the National Assembly. I did explain in the interview, which was accurately though not necessarily fully reported, that I could not presume that I would be nominated in 2011.

I explained that in relation to the position of Speaker, after two terms amounting to ten years, a new leadership of the National Assembly would serve to maintain confidence in its democratic character and add renewed vigour and direction to the reform process. In was in this context that I expressed the view that there ought to be a new Speaker in 2011 and in which my remarks about the limited duration of a politician’s life are to be understood.

I said that I expected to continue thereafter to be active in politics as long as my party wishes me to be.

Yours faithfully,
Ralph Ramkarran