Dear Editor,
Dr Jeffrey’s letter in SN of January 1 is excellent PR for candidate Ralph Ramkarran, but it is sorely lacking. What is the mark of a leader? How does one recognize promise in a yet unproven, untested leader? Has Mr Ramkarran ever articulated a clear vision for the future of Guyana? Has he identified a few current problems (the ongoing road carnage, burgeoning crime rates)? Has he ever contributed to policy development and programmes to solve these problems?
A leader must be willing to take postions, then explain, persuade and inspire his countrymen to adopt and support those postions. Public speaking and writing skills, the ability to persuade, personality and the charisma to inspire large numbers of people are necessary skills to succeed as a leader.
Dr Jeffrey’s anecdotes of having hired the young Mr Ramkarran to teach a course at Kuru-Kuru College is irrelevant. Mr Ramkarran as Speaker of the parliament trying to provide balance between two competing sides is relevant, and does provide clues about leadership. His success can be judged by members on both sides of the House.
In fact I will provide two issues that suggest Mr Ramkarran does not provide what it takes to be a leader.
(1) He has not advocated change in the system to elect the party’s leader. Does Mr Ramkarran know of any state (except communist states), where a bare 36 so-called Central Committee people have the power to elect their party’s presidential candidate? Mr Ramkarran is supporting the status quo; an archaic system that was designed for another era, one intended to re-elect the founder-leader for life; a system that denies the approximately 2500 members of the party their democratic right to vote to elect their next leader. Mr Ramkarran’s stance on this issue suggests to me he has no vision. His ideas about changes made in the last 50 years to broaden the franchise and empower people, about what it takes to develop the modern party and state are found to be lacking.
(2) Mr Ramkarran could not possibly be unaware of the MPCA union that colluded with management to sell out workers’ rights and the decades’ long struggle for GAWU to win recognition. An entrenched board full of ruling party people, chaired by Dr Nanda Gopaul who doubles as President Jagdeo’s chief-of-staff threatened to de-recognize the union. Lo and behold! Mr Ramkarran stood by and was silent. Such silence cannot be construed as the mark of a great leader.
(3) Is Mr Ramkarran a problem-solver? Some time after 1997 (I was doing a poll in Guyana in company with Mr Vishnu Bisram), I sent a letter to the PPP offering my services free of charge to work on the road-carnage problem.
In 1997, the government had proposed ending the importation of retread tyres; several had exploded at high speed in 1997 and killed people.
I had been a yellow-cab driver in NYC and had excellent exposure to study the regime of laws, traffic enforcement, traffic courts, taxi-driver licensing system, and wanted to set up a similar system in Guyana. My letter was addressed to General Secretary Mr Ramotar. I never received a reply. What is the status of the road carnage problem today? It goes on unabated. Every year hundreds are killed on our roadways that have become more dangerous. Is Mr Ramkarran or Mr Ramotar a problem-solver? Can they identify one national problem that they worked on, contributing to its solution? Retread tyres are still imported.
I believe that neither Mr Ramkarran nor Mr Ramotar possesses a resumé, after 18-years in government, to show that they have proof of solving national problems. Mr Ramotar at best is doing an administrative, desk job, managing party groups throughout the country, and has never worked on policy and programme development. The jobs these men do are pedestrian and do not prepare them to run a country. Neither works at ministerial or cabinet levels.
Having a routine interaction with someone who later becomes a candidate is not enough reason for endorsing that candidate. Malcolm Harripaul endorses Brigadier Granger; Dr Jeffrey endorses Mr Ramkarran, but they do not state what leadership qualities and experience their preferred candidates possess; and in the case of Mr Ramkarran or Mr Ramotar, how they demonstrated those qualities during the last 18 years in office.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud
New York
