Dear Editor,
A mere two months after being sworn in as the first minority President in the history of our country, Donald Ramotar asked Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana’s immediate past president, to stand in his place and represent Guyana at the 2012 Sustainable Development Summit in India.
When asked by reporters to verify whether Mr Jagdeo was indeed going to represent Guyana at the summit President Ramotar was quoted by Demerara Waves as saying, “He is invited in his own right as a person and of course he’s going to be representing Guyana too.” The report also indicated that the President had said that he too had been invited to participate but would not be able to attend.
Editor, the issue here is not whether or not Mr Jagdeo was ‘qualified,’ as Mr Ramotar is claiming, to attend the conference, but rather whether it had been ascertained if Guyanese would want the former president to represent them. Mr Ramotar should not have taken this concern for granted when he knew the views of the people regarding Mr Jagdeo, and his words suggested he was dismissive of the people’s opinion. It appears as though a vote for Mr Ramotar was indeed a vote for Mr Jagdeo. Just to remind Mr Ramotar, the November elections were a damning indictment of Jagdeo’s presidency. For the first time in the nation’s history, we have a situation where the executive is not the majority in the parliament. The PPP/C lost the elections largely because of Jagdeo’s mismanagement and the visionless PPP/C. Now, to send Jagdeo to represent us without consulting us was an affront and disrespectful to the people of Guyana.
The citizens did not have the faintest idea as to what Mr Jagdeo’s role would have been at the summit. Was Mr Jagdeo authorized to make commitments for the nation? Who bore the costs of the trip? I believe that President Ramotar has a duty to clear the air on these matters of concern to the people, whether directly or through the government representatives in parliament. More importantly, we recall Mr Ramotar making pledges on the campaign trail to utilize Mr Jagdeo, a comment I do not necessarily have a difficulty with. However, when Mr Ramotar said that, the PPP/C assumed that they would get a landslide victory. The reality today is different, and common sense would dictate that the President should tread lightly and take due care to avoid the arm abuse of power by the executive arm. While Mr Ramotar has stated that his government will not be held to ransom, he must also know that the people will not be taken for a ride.
The people would like to know all the details of this recent trip and how it was paid for. Finally on this issue, the question of timing arises. Why so soon into his presidency did Mr Ramotar decline to represent his people at the international level?
Yours faithfully,
Lurlene Nestor
