A week after PPP executive and former speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran, wrote that corruption is pervasive in Guyana, the ruling party is yet to make a public pronouncement on the matter raising questions as to who runs the show at Freedom House.
PPP Executive member, Gail Teixeira, last week declined to comment on Ramkarran’s statement. “The PPP has not met to discuss it,” she said, stressing that decisions are made after the top officials of Freedom House would have met and discussed an issue. She said that an individual does not speak on behalf of the party and they would have to discuss it first and since they have not done so yet, she could not give a position on Ramkarran’s statement.
In the past, the party’s General Secretary would respond to queries. The current General Secretary is President Donald Ramotar. Prior to becoming president, he held the post of PPP General Secretary for a number of years.
PPP Executive Secretary, Zulficar Mustapha, also declined to comment on Ramkarran’s statement. When contacted, he said the General Secretary of the party–President Ramotar–is out of the country and when he returns, the party will meet and discuss the issue. “I don’t want to give a comment on that yet because we haven’t discussed it fully,” he said.
Writing in the PPP’s newspaper, the Mirror last weekend, Ramkarran called for the government to take determined action against corruption. He said he knew of enough verifiable instances of corruption to satisfy himself that it was a pervasive problem. It is a matter that can no longer be ignored by the government, Ramkarran said.
Stabroek News was told that Mustapha – the former chairman of Region Six – is the point person at Freedom House and asked whether he would be the person to contact on matters in relation to the party, he responded in the affirmative but said that Teixeira speaks on legislative matters. Teixeira, who is also Presidential Advisor on Governance, has spoken with Stabroek News on legislative matters.
Last December, Teixeira told Stabroek News that Ramotar is likely to continue holding the post of PPP General Secretary until the party decides on the way forward. She had said that the party will have to decide whether Ramotar will hold onto the position like Dr Cheddi Jagan had even after he became president. Ramotar became the PPP’s General Secretary following the death of Dr Jagan in 1997 and has served in that capacity since.
Teixeira had noted that since Dr Jagan’s death there had been a separation between the head of the party and the presidency. She noted that since Dr Jagan’s death, both Janet Jagan and Bharrat Jagdeo became president while not holding on to the post of party General Secretary.
Observers have noted that should the party opt for a new General Secretary, Teixeira could be one of the persons in contention for the post.
PPP executive member Robert Persaud had also said that there was no conflict of interest between Ramotar holding the General Secretary position and that of president and pointed to the dual role that Dr Jagan had played.
The issue could be settled at the party’s 30th Congress which it had postponed last August so that it could concentrate on the general elections. This was done after the Central Committee of the party unanimously passed a motion on the matter.
