Dear Editor,
At this juncture the PPP faces a critical challenge to choose the best presidential candidate for next year’s elections. I believe Ralph Ramkarran is that candidate.
The son of Cheddi Jagan’s long-time deputy Boysie Ramkarran, Ralph himself has been actively involved in PPP politics for over 50 years. It is fashionable these days to talk about who fought in the trenches and who did not. Well, as Oscar Ramjeet reminded us recently, in 1957 Ralph Ramkarran was selling the Party’s newspaper Thunder (before Mirror appeared) from house to house and helping to spread the Party’s message in difficult colonial conditions.
While in England as a law student in the late 1960s, Ralph Ramkarran helped to organize picketing exercises against Burnham and the Guyana High Commission. In an interview published in the Times newspaper, he helped the PPP to expose the PNC rigging of the overseas vote in the 1968 general elections. It was Ralph Ramkarran who led delegations to the High Commissioner, trudged the streets of London mobilizing Guyanese, and organized and sold tickets for numerous fund raising activities. He helped to build the UK Branch of the PPP, and conducted seminars and other educational programmes. All those things he did during his university student years. If that isn’t recognized as work in the trenches, what is?
When Ralph Ramkarran returned to Guyana after completing his studies successfully, he was immediately appointed as a PPP representative on the Elections Commission. He campaigned for the Party in the 1973 elections. I saw him at Queen’s College on that elections night while some votes were being counted and witnessed him answering questions during a live radio interview. Later, he was engaged in legal defence year after year on behalf of dozens of PPP activists and supporters. He played a big part in reworking the PPP constitution. He also got himself involved in writing articles, lecturing and doing seminars, etc. for the Party. Indeed, he served the PPP in various capacities with distinction for decades.
Together with his political experience, Ralph Ramkarran has an incorruptible quality in his nature. I have no doubt that, as President of Guyana, he will take deliberate and firm measures to root out corruption in the public service. He knows how to exercise power and authority wisely, skilfully and without a trace of arrogance. All Guyanese can look forward to honest, reliable and non-discriminatory governance with Ralph Ramkarran as President.
While wholeheartedly endorsing Mr Ramkarran’s candidacy, I wish the other contenders well. At the end of the day they are all my respected comrades. Let the PPP show the world its exemplary Party democracy, its unbreakable unity, its readiness to secure a convincing victory next year.
Yours faithfully,
Hemraj Muniram
