Dear Editor,
Miranda La Rose in an article in the SN dated August 10, 2008, captioned ‘PPP central committee votes – Ramkarran disappointed, cites lobby against him’ stated, “PPP Central Committee Member and Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran is disappointed at the low vote tally he received for his seat on the Central Committee of the PPP at its recent congress and cited a lobby against him as the reason for his decline in the party rankings.”
Mr Ramkarran went public with his disappointment. Some time ago when I attempted to inform him about my feelings about being marginalized he felt that I was talking nonsense.
Just recently the Chairman of one of the regions told me that discussions by leading members of the party with other members, in his presence, painted me negatively, but when he met me he found me to be quite the opposite. I have been informed of very many other incidents of this nature. I wrote a six-page document to the General Secretary requesting an investigation. This was copied to others but nothing was done about it.
Now I want to ask Mr Ramkarran if what I claim happened to me is possible in light of what he claims happened to him. I would also like to ask him as an executive member of the PPP, with aspirations to be the party’s presidential candidate, how he feels about what the leadership of the PPP did to Moses Nagamootoo recognizing that he has expressed publicly his disagreement with regard to what happened to Navin Chandarpal. How does he feel about a number of persons who came from almost nowhere, bypassing seasoned and well-educated and certificated comrades? He knows me for possibly over 20 years.
I want him to explain as an executive member of the party how, I, after being the presidential candidate of the PYO at UG, nearly winning the elections, and a candidate member of the PPP central committee, and functioning in various capacities within the regional committees and writing for the past 30 years in the press against the PNC dictatorship and in support and in defence of the PPP; after speaking on the PPP platform for years; after being beaten and jailed like many others, having a degree in sociology and a degree in law, I cannot get into the CC, and if this is not because of negative campaigns like the one I mentioned earlier and because of how the processes within the PPP are manipulated.
Does he not feel that there is some level of distortion with regard to the democratic processes within the PPP? At least he claims that it affected his votes. Would he want to agree that there may be some level of favouritism, nepotism and ‘friendism’ existing? Would he want to agree that those members who may be critical, within the forums provided, of what is happening within the PPP and the actions of some of the leadership, are seen as troublemakers and mavericks and given no opportunity to rise within the organization?
Interestingly Mr Ramkarran was voted in as a member of the executive though disappointed with his low votes, but Moses was shut out of the executive even though he brought fifth without being in a prominent position like minister of government or Speaker of the National Assembly. It is a fact that many who, today, are members of the Central Committee would not have gotten one quarter of the votes they did if they had not been appointed ministers or if they were not given a real push by certain members of the executive through direct campaigning and instructions to the organizers and by putting them in the limelight.
In a previous election to the executive Moses was shut out and Navin tied in fourteenth place with Bheri Ramsarran, a relatively new contender. Indra Chandarpal did not get in and she was the General Secretary of the Women’s Progressive Organisation and obtained far higher votes. Both Moses and Navin were already long-standing members of the executive.
Would Mr Ramkarran venture to appreciate the feelings of Moses and Indra with regard to being shut out of the executive? Does he find this strange, possibly undemocratic and in defiance of the popular will?
I recall that at an election for the regional committee for PPP Region 2, I received the highest votes at a time when the regional conference recognized clearly that the then First Secretary was under functioning and the region was in a mess, yet when the fifteen elected members met I was defeated for the position of first secretary and the incumbent retained the position. Maybe someone could explain why the instruction was that I was not to get the position of Chairman of the district committee or why I was banned as a volunteer driver of the party. In response to my query to the party leadership I was told by letter that I was not banned.
In a letter in the KN dated March 20, 2010 and captioned ‘Ramkarran should be PPP/C presidential nominee,’ a number of potential candidates were named – Ralph, Donald, Rohee, Moses and Robert. Some things were said of Ralph and definitely I was not impressed. Just the other day someone was elected as a candidate member of the CC, a relative unknown, a friend of mine, but his name was a familiar one. Obviously names are important and serve useful purposes in assisting members to get elected.
There were some briefs about Rohee, Donald and Moses, and quite rightly nothing about Robert Persaud, whose rise to the point of people considering him as a potential presidential candidate is nothing but phenomenal though inexplicable.
In terms of the mechanism for the sudden and phenomenal rise to the top of some and the marginalization of others, suffice to say here that it’s an abuse of, and a manipulation of the way members are selected to carry out important functions in the party and how others are not. This would obviously affect the popularity status of members.
And Oscar Ramjeet should tell us some more about the life and struggle of Mr Ramkarran in the trenches.
Yours faithfully,
Rajendra Bisessar