Dear Editor,
I write in response to Mr. Christopher Ram‘s letter published in the Stabroek News, edition dated June 13, 2020: captioned, `A movement once famous for its values and Rodneyite principles is now deeply involved in attempts to rig the 2020 elections.’
Please permit me the same latitude given to Mr. Ram in his missive. It is pertinent that I say upfront that I view Ram’s attack on me and the WPA in similar light as those of Freddie Kissoon and other PPP/C supporters, as hostile polemics and not criticisms. Ram has chosen to engage in “trench warfare” and I will therefore respond appropriately.
I hope that Christopher Ram will not use his influence in Stabroek News to deny me access to its letter pages, bearing in mind that Ram is a major shareholder in that media house. (Editor’s note: Christopher Ram is not a shareholder.) Before I continue let me reiterate my historical position on public polemics, “I will defend anyone’s right to criticise the WPA and me once we are given the right to reply.”
Ram correctly pointed to the PNC and its Founder Leader, Mr. Forbes Burnham’s known history as it relates to rigged elections and dictatorial governance. There is no need for me to elaborate. What Ram has failed to tell readers is that it was under the PNC/Burnham regime aided by his buddy Elvin McDavid, who at the time was a powerful politician in the ruling party and government that “opened” the door for Ram to emerge as a successful businessman and now an economic power in the country. The genesis of his economic empire lies in the support he received from Mc David’s organized “state patronage”. As a result he is a primary beneficiary of what he refers to as Burnham’s rigged elections and dictatorial rule. I make this point as a direct response to Ram’s claim that some of WPA’s political leaders, including me, have benefited from employment in the APNU+AFC government via “jobs and perks”.
Personally, I find this kind of attack by Ram insulting, disrespectful, poisoned by class prejudice, and racist. In his world view, an African political activist with humble origins and over 50 years of involvement in national politics is not entitled to a decent job to gain experience in the working of state institutions. For Ram this is the domain of the elite, forgetting in the process the famous adage that “every cook must learn to govern.” I want to assure Ram and others like him that in my short sojourn working in a state institution I have learned a lot, and am prepared for my departure back to the Kitty Market.
I was inclined to ignore Ram’s remark when he said “I recall driving up to Buxton to pick up Kwayana the morning he left Guyana and of his dissatisfaction with Ogunseye’s role in relation to the violence which had erupted on the lower East Coast.” But since this comes not long after Kissoon’s resurrection of his erroneous thesis that I was involved with “gunmen” in Buxton, I am convinced that Ram’s invoking of Kwayana is deliberate. As I have been doing whenever this issue comes up, I call on my accusers to reveal their information. I now call on Christopher Ram and again on Kissoon to publish their evidence of my involvement with the violence in Buxton and lower East Coast and anywhere in Guyana.
I assure both Kissoon and Ram and media-houses that there will be no libel action on my part when they fail to provide the evidence.
I have restricted this response to matters raised in Ram’s article that are personal to me as against those of the WPA. In another letter, I will address the other issues contained in the column that is more related to the party.
I conclude by acknowledging Ram’s cynical “compliment” when he wrote, “Ogunseye remains committed to the romantic notion of a liberation struggle.” Yes, Mr Ram, I do. If Walter Rodney was alive and we were still engaged in that aspect of struggle, you would, no doubt, have mocked him as you now do me, for his continued participation in that form of struggle.
For your information, one of the things Rodney always did, whether in Jamaica or here, was to sound warnings against your type. Unlike you, my class position has not fundamentally changed despite my employment by the coalition government.
Yours faithfully,
Tacuma Ogunseye
