Dear Editor,
In his latest piece, `The defence of Guyana’s sovereignty’, (SN, July
6), former House Speaker, Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, tried to be as delicately balanced as he could in trying to frame his opinion on the recent Manickchand-Hardt diplomatic snafu. But I think he may have inadvertently exposed what has become so radically wrong with the PPP: It is no longer the Jagan PPP he knew, and which is why he is out and the self-serving political and material hustlers are in! Before delving deeper on that point, I have taken careful note of the startling context of Mr. Ramkarran’s statement in the second paragraph: “Ambassador Hardt should therefore consider himself very lucky to get away with only what Dr. Luncheon described as a ‘feral blast’ by a ‘warrior.’ Feral indeed! As for being a ‘warrior,’ the United
States itself may soon be in jeopardy with the number of warriors, the President included, in and around the Guyana Cabinet. Maybe we can live without the United States, but what if Guyana’s warriors declare war on all of its tormentors at the same time – the US, Canada, UK and the whole of Europe?” The first sentence seems to imply that the Ambassador was lucky that he could have suffered worse than a ‘feral blast’; perhaps expulsion? The second sentence seems to imply that Mr. Ramkarran is privy to inside information that says the PPP regime is planning to take some sort of action that could jeopardize Guyana-US relations, perhaps severance of ties? The third sentence or qualifying interrogatory seems to wonder aloud about the fallout from similar jeopardizing action by the PPP regime against the rest of the West, dubbed here as ‘tormentors’ of the regime. If I take the interpretation of the foregoing piece extracted from Mr. Ramkarran’s column at face value, I am compelled to ask the following three questions: Is the PPP regime seriously planning to jeopardize Guyana’s relations with the US beyond the so-called ‘feral blast’ at its Ambassador? Will the rest of the West react unkindly to the PPP government if it further jeopardizes its relations with the US? More importantly, will Guyanese, at home and abroad, willingly support the PPP government if it jeopardizes relations with the US and the West or even follow any undisclosed adventure by the PPP? Getting back to the opening point, Mr. Ramkarran noted that after the Ambassador pointed out what he saw as inconsistencies with President Ramotar’s position on the constitution, vis a vis, local government elections, the President, ‘relying on ‘feral’ responses by an invited ‘warrior’ to the Ambassador’s home…lost the opportunity of defending his position, which he is quite capable of doing’. To which I ask: If the President was capable of defending his position, why didn’t he do so in person? And to which I answer: He could not because he was caught in a concoction of his own making and obviously sought refuge vicariously in the Jagdeo-style cussing down whenever he, too, was caught in his own web.
I have repeatedly said President Ramotar is unqualified for his position and refuses to surround himself with people who are eminently qualified, which explains why someone like Minister Manickchand could represent him in the most undiplomatic of ways. I say most undiplomatic, because Mr. Ramkarran further ventured what the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan might have done: “In all of these situations I try to think of what Cheddi Jagan would have done. Never, ever, taking criticism personally, being offended by it or being confrontational or personal, he would have first engaged the Ambassador by telephone as he often did. Then, if necessary, he would have made a public response to the issue.” So here is the crux: this is not Cheddi Jagan’s PPP, anymore; it is the Jagdeo-Ramotar PPP that has lowered the standard of government to a level that expressive letter writer, GHK Lall, identified as ‘gutter’ politics. And the sad paradox is that some have been literally defending the PPP’s every move, even when proven wrong! There is definitely no ‘Redemption Song’ for the PPP! I did say at the top that Mr. Ramkarran tried to be as delicately balanced as he could, because apart from his foregoing points I addressed, he ventured his opinion about Guyana’s sovereignty, which he felt was violated by the US in the 60s when the democratically-elected PPP was ousted via a Western engineered plot, even as the US liked to promote and defend democracy. “Guyana and the PPP were victims of this double standard and it is this history that conditions Guyana’s response to calls for local government elections from the United States.
Ambassador Hardt is aware of this but says that this is US Government policy so that this ‘intervention’ is not likely to stop anytime soon,” Mr. Ramkarran wrote. Then, as part of his conclusion, he asked: ‘If the US is inconsistent, what about Guyana?’ On reading that, I immediately wondered: Is Mr. Ramkarran being inconsistent while trying to be balanced? Put another way: Is he defending the PPP’s actions today of denying Guyanese their constitutional right to LG Elections because of what the US did to the PPP 50 years ago? At what point do Guyana’s elections ever become about the people of Guyana and not about the US, the PPP, the PNC or even the AFC? Lost somewhere in this ongoing political battle among the political titans are the suffering people who are at wits end about what to do to barely survive, let alone pick a side to fight for. But the fact that Guyanese continue to migrate to the West tells me which side Guyanese really prefer, and that is why it is up to a party that resonates with the people to step up and assume the mantle of leadership with whatever help from the West, because even if the Jagan PPP was a people’s party, this Ramotar-Jagdeo PPP definitely is not a party of the people! Enough said!
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
