Dear Editor,
I don’t have a problem with criticism ( see `Ralph Ramkarran is the best PPP/C candidate for the presidency’ SN Jan 1, 2011). I have a serious problem with fallacious criticism and criticism from questionable sources. Frankly, Henry Jeffrey’s criticism is fallacious and he is, without question, a questionable source. Henry Jeffrey defines political opportunism, supplication and the pursuit of self-interest in Guyana. His service to and in both of the most destructive political forces in the history of the nation is sufficient proof of why Jeffrey will write exactly this type of missive in response to my letter. Jeffrey’s position is that because many will vote for the PPP the issue of the unsuitability of any of its presidential candidates is pointless. Jeffrey badly misses the point. Many voted for Forbes Burnham although his leadership of the nation was a disaster. The fact that voters will make wrong choices is not the heart of my letter. The point of my letter is that given this nation’s damning history of spectacularly failed leadership seeking the ultimate prize of absolute power, every flaw of every aspirant must be subjected to full and frank assessment. This must be objectively done. The voters will make up their minds. This is not a case of the ‘least/lesser evil’ or ‘best of the worst’ option which Jeffrey suggests as a compromise. Forbes Burnham’s PNC was supposed to be the lesser of the available evils in 1964 and look where it left us. The PPP was supposed to be the lesser of the evils in 1992 and look where it left us.
Jeffrey makes a critical point that the PPP’s candidate is most likely to become President. This means the selection of the PPP’s presidential candidate is not a PPP issue but a national issue. As such, any fundamental flaw of that person must be closely examined. The profound silence of such a candidate to the egregious wrongs of those within his party is an issue of national importance. Unless Jeffrey has somehow forgotten, a PPP President governs a nation not only of PPP supporters but also of those who did not vote for the PPP. Jeffrey’s use of ‘loyalty’ and ‘collective responsibility’ as excuses for the chilling silence of those within the PPP and PNC during their reigns of perversity is laughable. While he is correct that political party insiders have contributed to pivotal national and international political changes, definitely not so in Guyana. I will remind Jeffrey that the PPP like the PNC has been on a course of relentless degeneration in the past 18 years. The people of this nation are still waiting desperately for manifestation of those monumental changes Henry Jeffrey alone is privy to and knows of.
Jeffrey seeks to use examples of Deng Xiaoping, Mikhail Gorbachev and Frederik de Klerk to highlight his call for Ramkarran’s candidacy. It is insulting to compare de Klerk and Gorbachev to Ramkarran’s potential for obvious reasons. Xiaoping was openly critical of the Cultural Revolution during the Revolution.
His criticism was open and known to the nation and the party and it enabled him to gain power after the event. On the other hand, Ramkarran’s (and Nagamootoo’s) legacy is one of staggering silence and the failure to do the things to engineer the kind of change within the PPP that Xiaoping actively and openly worked for and achieved in his party. Hoyte had no choice. In all of these examples, mostly external factors forced change and in the case of Xiaoping’s China there was courage and open criticism. Jeffrey’s paradigm of moral convenience is exactly the kind of solution that has left us suffering under the morbid spells of the PNC and PPP. Jeffrey must know that prolonged inaction clouds principle. When injudicious and corrupt organizational power controls action such action inevitably becomes corrupt and serves corruption.
After his defence of Ramkarran, Jeffrey admits Ramkarran disagrees with his shared governance formula. Ramkarran prefers to stick with the tried and true formula. Jeffrey must tell us why is it that those progressive proposals for reform submitted by Ramkarran to the PPP have never been implemented. I sincerely hope that if Ralph Ramkarran ever becomes President he offers Henry Jeffrey a position.
Yours faithfully,
M. Maxwell
