Dear Editor,
I served the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) for sixty years. However, after the death of Dr Jagan in 1997, I became increasingly dissatisfied with developments in the party to the point where, on my 68th birthday in May 2006, I chose to leave, and no urging by senior PPP people could have changed my mind.
After Dr Jagan’s death many members who had given long and faithful service to the party were no longer appreciated, and the value of their service was overlooked and discarded. Some of them were expelled, others were ignored. One glaring example was Philomena (Fireball) Sahoye, who was expected to be given a ministry by those of us in the struggle for decades and who know this fine woman, but was instead merely made Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Director of Community Development.
Another example is Joseph O’Lall who was unceremoniously fired by President Jagdeo in 2008. In 1961, he was a schoolteacher at Redeemer Lutheran School when I, as Vice-Chairman of the Campbellville PYO Group, introduced him to the PYO. He then joined and was recommended by the group for a scholarship to Hungary to study Electrical Engineering (just as I was to East Germany). O’Lall, it is true, worked for the PNC government after he returned home as a qualified engineer, but then also gave important and valuable service to the PPP government from 1992. Before his death he had some people in court for fuel smuggling. He came to me as his long-time friend, and said he was asked to drop the case. He refused to comply and had planned to take the matter to the PPP Congress of August last year. He died before he could have done so. In his dispute with the Jagdeo government, his service to the PPP was ignored.
Khemraj Ramjattan, an Alliance For Change leader was once a prominent member of the PPP Section ‘K’ Campbellville group and a legal advisor to the PPP. He also played an important role in raising funds. Eventually, he was expelled from the party.
Harry Ramdass, Cecil Ramsingh, Fazal Khan, Moses Nagamootoo, Ralph Ramkarran are among the others who have given sterling and faithful service to the PPP, only to have been cast aside and overlooked today. Despite this, the consensus among long-time PPP supporters is still for the party to be taken over by either Nagamootoo or Ramkarran. Within this present administration there are hardly any popular PPP people from Dr Jagan’s time – the only exception being the young Dr Frank Anthony. Clement Rohee, because of his arrogance, and Kellawan Lall can hardly be considered charismatic and popular.
Instead, today you prominently see Maniram Prashad and Odinga Lumumba – these are people who were opposed to the PPP up until 1992, and were strong in their opposition. Maniram Prashad was a PNC City Councillor and ardent member of the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP). Now, they are for the PPP, as proud of their support as they were opposed to it in times past. Also, believe it or not, you have the likes of Kwame McCoy now too. Editor, isn’t this in and of itself a reflection of what the PPP has become today?
As you can see, this present PPP government seems to be getting into trouble with older party members with whom it disagrees, and whose services it treats with indifference and disrespect. Some, like me, because of this treatment, increasing corruption and increasingly inept and heartless governance (Dr Jagan would never have imposed the VAT because it puts the brunt of the burden on the poor), have become members of the AFC. With this drift away from the PPP, the party’s prospects in future elections have become highly problematical, in fact, quite uncertain.
While no doubt progress has been made under the 17 years of the PPP, within the last 10 years it has been accompanied by so many negatives that the PPP cannot adequately defend itself on the issues only any more, and is forced to employ a fear and smear campaign instead. This is why you have dirt thrown on the AFC, and protestors being paid by the PPP – such a shame to see the behaviour we PPP loyalists fought so hard against, at the risk of our lives, being employed by the PPP today.
This truly bleeds my heart. I have been around since 1946 when my father, who was the Foreman for Kitty, would open the market for PAC meetings. I remember in 1953 when Mr Jairam Bissessar campaigned against Mr Forbes Burnham. Dr Jagan urged his supporters to vote for Mr Burnham, and a PPP election group was formed under my father’s house, with me at the age of 15 having the responsibility for mobilising Delph St. In the end, all 73 households in Delph St voted for Mr Burnham and he won handsomely by over 5,000 votes.
That same year too, I had the privilege of sharing a platform with both Dr Jagan and Mr Burnham. For the record, ‘Apaan Jhaat’ never came from the PPP; it was the Bissessar group along with prominent Indian Pandits and businessmen, who used the term in an effort to persuade Indians to vote against Mr Burnham. They of course failed miserably and this illustrated the unity of Guyanese under Dr Jagan’s PPP.
I imparted the principles of Dr Jagan to my son, Gerhard, from an early age, and immediately upon our return to Guyana from Germany in 1976 (for the second time, since upon my first return I was told by Mr Burnham he had no need for Jagan’s scholars), before he could even speak English, I enlisted him in the Pioneers. From there Gerhard went on to the PYO and then to the PPP proper.
I have always shared a close personal relationship with the Jagans and the WPO, of which my German-born wife, Brigitte, was an executive member (Moses Nagamootoo recognised her contributions in a recent publication), and organised Dr Jagan’s 60th birthday celebrations in my home. Then as President he would visit our flower farm/resort and shocked us with his plunging into the water from a bridge high above. Just before Mrs Janet Jagan died this year, I took flowers over for Dr Jagan’s birthday (March 22) which I had been doing every year from a long time back (for Mrs Jagan too) and continued after his death. I had a long conversation with her where she said she never recognised my leaving the PPP, and took the time to admonish me on my personal life as well.
My love for the Jagans resulted in me influencing my son into an idealist, and I must accept it is my fault he consequently left the PPP in 2005, having served them for almost 30 years. As you can see, he left before I did, and I must admit too, that I was shamed into action because of him. Otherwise today, I would still have only been hoping against hope that things would revert to the old days.
My son opened my eyes to the AFC with the promise of a new beginning, and I urge people like the young lady Rohanie Persaud (http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/09/15/the-claim-that-afc-is-guyana%E2%80%99s-only-multi-racial-party-is-a-myth/) to think again if people like me can see flickers of the old days in the AFC. One needs only to examine footage of the AFC’s launch and subsequent conferences for which there was no bussing in of supporters. Ms Persaud needs to understand also it is not just about the Indian votes the AFC got, but more so about those that stayed home because of the AFC’s exposure of this administration’s wrongdoing – especially in Berbice, with a total of 27,000 nationwide. The effort is now ongoing to convert these into AFC votes.
At my age of 71, with advanced diabetes and a heart condition, I accept that I may never see a repeat of 1953. However, as is, I am already content enough.
You can see that little party maturing and growing in strength day by day, and this old man thanks from the bottom of his heart Mr Raphael Trotman and Mr Khemraj Ramjattan for coming together and fulfilling a long-held dream. I can now leave this earth in peace, knowing this and that my son (and perhaps grandson too) will continue my fight for a better and united Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Boyo Ramsaroop
