Former PPP leading light Ralph Ramkarran has criticized the party’s leaders over abuse heaped on AFC executive Moses Nagamootoo at a remembrance for the Jagans two weeks ago at Port Mourant.
In a column to appear in tomorrow’s Sunday Stabroek, Ramkarran declared that abuse had no place in political discourse and the attacks ran counter to all of the teachings and examples set by the late President Cheddi Jagan.
Ramkarran said that if the party wanted to seriously address the departure of Nagamootoo from the party and its implications then it had to address a number of areas including democratizing and restructuring the party and talking to the opposition.
Ramkarran, who quit the party last year after nearly 50 years of membership in a row over his concern about the corruption problem in the country, said measures also had to be taken to address graft.
“…the answer to Moses lies not in abuse but in a discourse on the economic and political challenges faced by Guyana against the background of world and regional political and economic developments using the methodology of Cheddi Jagan, analysing how Guyana’s business people can take advantage in the current situation, pointing to the place of Guyana’s workers, particularly sugar workers, in this scenario, announcing plans for the reconstructing and democratizing the Party, condemning corruption and announcing measures to curb it and recognizing that none of this can be achieved without talking seriously with the Opposition.”
Declaring that it had been thought that with the change of government that the trend towards `cuss-down’ would have ended, Ramkarran said that the events at Babu John – where President Donald Ramotar described Nagamootoo as a jackass – proved otherwise.
“The slow dismantling of Cheddi Jagan’s legacy of reasoned debate as a method of convincing opponents and educating supporters began at the turn of the century. It created the opening for the introduction of an alternative approach to political discourse – the cuss-down. Many had hoped that with the change in Government, this particularly degrading and offensive type of verbal assault would come to a welcome end. It was felt that necessity would dictate a change of course because it was believed that the cuss-down tactic caused the PPP to lose votes at the last elections. However, it appears to have been given a new lease of life at the rally at Babu John on March 3, in the name of Cheddi Jagan”, he stated.