Each year, and particularly at Babu John, Port Mourant it becomes clearer and clearer why the person who holds the position of Head of State should not also be the person who heads the government.
The Head of State should typically be someone who is held in the highest esteem by as much of the population as is possible and comports himself or herself in such manner. Unfortunately, the Burnham constitution throttled this separation and this has evoked grossly unacceptable behaviour by some of the Presidents while on purely political platforms. Perhaps because of the frequency with which it has occurred in recent years the citizenry has become inured to it and oblivious to the inestimable value of keeping these two posts separate. It is unfortunate that at the height of the most recent round of constitutional reforms in 2000, neither of the two major parties perceived this as being important enough to fight for.
One can go through President Ramotar’s presentation line for line at the Babu John memorial two Sundays ago for the late Presidents Cheddi and Janet Jagan and find so much that was wrong, offensive and beneath his status as President and Head of State.
However, only two points need to be made. His roles as Head of Government and Leader of the ruling party aside there was nothing conciliatory or healing about President Ramotar’s presentation and tone. Clearly, in the party’s stronghold which showed discontent in the 2011 general elections, President Ramotar felt that he had to deliver a no-holds barred assault on any and everyone perceived to be an opponent or critic of the government.
On the platform, his persona as Head of State cannot be neatly ring fenced and compartmentalized. So, at Babu John, it was effectively the Head of State who was spraying attacks wildly. Whatever reserve capacities and healing qualities reside in the role of Head of State as envisaged by the crafters of the Constitution will never bloom in these circumstances. Mr. Ramotar was unrelentingly divisive and uncompromising.
There was no message of conciliation to that segment of the populace that didn’t support his party at the general elections let alone their representatives. The President may well argue that he doesn’t have the lien on divisiveness and that he has been subject to mendacious attacks and worse. He, however, is the personage who is ultimately expected be above the fray and salve the rifts in society. This part did not enter his play at all; very unfortunate for the nation.
Second, his behaviour and invective at his erstwhile colleague Mr Moses Nagamootoo fell wholly into the category of grotesque attacks on opponents and signalled the deep worry that the ruling party harbours over inroads into its major constituency, the birthplace of Dr Jagan. Nonetheless, at an event honouring the Jagans, both of whom Mr Nagamootoo worked closely with for several decades, one would have thought that President Ramotar would have shown some recognition of this truth and exercised circumspection in the manner in which he criticized his former colleague. Members of the public may well ask if these were views that Mr Ramotar held of Mr Nagamootoo for all of his years in the PPP or whether it’s all political expediency. Unfortunately, the President showed himself in most unflattering light at Babu John and has done nothing to alleviate the intemperate tone that has overwhelmed political dialogue particularly since the general elections. Indeed, his attack on Mr Nagamootoo led to a priceless headline irony in the state-owned Guyana Chronicle which with each passing day is emulating the worst behaviour of the paper in the pre-1992 era of the PNC. Its screaming headline of what President Ramotar said was `Ramotar rejects Nagamootoo as ‘intellectually corrupt jack-ass’ …defends Brassington against vicious, nasty opposition attacks’. The President’s attack fell well into the category that was being complained about against Mr Brassington.
So the President has a serious problem separating himself from the offensiveness which diminishes his functioning as the Head of State and President of all Guyanese. It is not his only problem. An even more debilitating one is the lack of substance that attends his presentations.
Since he has had so few addresses to the nation and press conferences, each one of his public appearances is evaluated for signs of new policy positions or indications as to how the government intends to navigate its minority status in parliament and fashion a blueprint for the country to break out of its economic stagnation and jobless growth.
On each occasion, as was the case at Babu John, he has been disappointing. There is no broad thinking, no vision for the rest of the presumptive five-year term, no agenda for healing the political divide. There is much of the harking back to the past and nicely trimmed versions of history according to the PPP. Empty rhetoric with little else while the country lurches from one political confrontation to the next and faces dire prospects in key industries such as sugar.
The presidency is not an easy life. Its responsibilities and pressures are no doubt extraordinary. However, President Ramotar has made it seem even more onerous by not embarking on a course to lift the country above the problems that its politicians have bequeathed. His lack of resolve and the ease with which he lapses into the invective as at Babu John paints a picture of a President who is biding time. It is all very disappointing and a disservice to the job he was elected to do.
Before the presentation of the next budget he should clearly set out what his vision is for the country, at least for the rest of the year and give hope to all of the citizens that he has a plan that recognizes his much larger role and obligation than simply being the leader of his party and leader of government.
