-Ramotar says future as general secretary up to party
The PPP will welcome former longstanding party member Ralph Ramkarran back into its fold if he decides to return, according to President Donald Ramotar, who said that the party will always welcome him back.
“Ralph is not anti-PPP. We had a disagreement. It was more or less personal. If you ask me if I will encourage him to come, yes I will always encourage him to come,” Ramotar said when asked whether he or the party has been re-engaging Ramkarran with a view to have him return to the party.
Ramkarran, whose family has long been associated with the party and was seen as one of its most credible figures, tendered his resignation on June 30 after the fallout from a column he authored in the Mirror Newspaper. The column, Ramkarran called on the government to do something about the “pervasive” corruption in the country.
Ramotar, speaking at a press conference yesterday, said that since the resignation, he met and spoke with Ramkarran on several occasions. While he did not go into the details of these meetings, he said that the two of them have a cordial relationship.
“Of course he would always be welcomed back into the PPP. Whenever he feels to come back to the PPP he will be welcomed back in the party,” he said.
The PPP has repeatedly said that it intends to engage Ramkarran on his resignation with a view to reconciling.
Meanwhile, since assuming the presidency observers have said that Ramotar should relinquish of his duties as General Secretary of the Party. Ramotar yesterday, when quizzed on the issue, confirmed that he still holds that position and while noting that sometimes it can be hard to balance his duties along with those of the presidency, he pointed out that it is up to the party to tell him to step down.
“…Sometimes I myself feel that it is too much for me but if the Central Committee of the party ask me to stay on, then being a disciplined party man I will probably find it difficult not to adhere to their wishes,” he said.
He stressed that he would continue to be the General Secretary of the party until the party leadership tells him it wants otherwise. “I am ready to step down immediately whenever the leadership of the party decides that that time is here to do that,” he said.
According to Ramotar, the General Secretary is elected from the Central Committee and it is only that body that could tell him to step down. He expressed hope that the new Central Committee, which will be elected hopefully before the end of the first quarter of 2013 when the party is slated to hold its long overdue congress, would make a decision as it relates to the General Secretary post. “I am not married to the job for life and I have no ambition to have a life position,” he said of the post.
