Dear Editor,
I have admired Mr. Ian McDonald’s views over the years and his stand-out and beautiful take on Rohan Kanhai years ago was excellent and captured that great batsman perfectly. However, his essay on Shridath (Sonny) Ramphal, also known as “Sir” which Ramphal loves to use, just as his son-in-law does (‘Sir’ Ronald Sanders who I knew as Ronald Singh when we were teenagers) is a very poor evaluation of a man who is such a well-known Guyanese.
When he was foreign minister, Ramphal turned a blind eye to the erosion of democracy, free speech and the free press while travelling all over the world at Guyanese citizens’ expense while accomplishing nothing tangible for our dear country. ‘Sonny’ Ramphal, for many years, in his public life did absolutely nothing much to advance the betterment of the people of Guyana – he was too busy with the champagne and caviar life in London and everywhere else, working hard to promote himself all the way for the sword on the shoulder and the `Sir’ on the lips.
When he was the big man in the Commonwealth, he did nothing to help bring democracy and free and fair
elections to Guyana, not to mention the political deaths of Walter Rodney or Father Darke; when he was high honcho of the Commonwealth, he did nothing to strengthen Guyana’s territorial integrity in safeguarding our future from Venezuelan hegemony; as the Captain of the Commonwealth ship, Ramphal did nothing much for West Indian and CARICOM unity and growth and as we see today, in every CARICOM territory, the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
As the Star-trooper of the Commonwealth, Ramphal never bothered to help safeguard human and civil rights in his own country and watched from afar as Guyana slid into terrible debt and countrywide poverty; as the big man in the Commonwealth, Ramphal had absolutely no interest in protecting Guyanese from blatant discrimination and bad treatment from some other West Indian countries when they migrated there or tried to do business in those places, because things were so hard in Guyana.
Editor, ‘Sonny’ Ramphal achieved his ultimate goal of being knighted by the Queen of England and that’s his legacy and nothing else – Mr. McDonald should wonder how come Rohan Kanhai was not knighted when, in fact, he did more with brilliant cricketing to make Guyanese of all races and religions proud of his batting genius. Rohan Kanhai was a knight of Guyana when Ramphal never was; Kanhai was a greater ambassador and more dedicated to his Guyanese brothers and sisters than Ramphal ever was.
Rohan Kanhai was an innovator and skilled avatar in his field and his legacy will live forever because he stayed simple and kept his roots intact while ‘Sonny’ Ramphal pursued a different path of self-interest and self-promotion with no real roots to our nation. With all due respect to Mr. McDonald, the case of ‘Sonny’ Ramphal deserves nothing less than the truth and the truth lies with the splendid life of Rohan Kanhai who made Guyana proud and whose name was used by Bob Marley and Sunil Gavaskar in naming their sons.
Ramphal, in his public life, accomplished really nothing for Guyana but due to the irony of life and unfairness of personal opportunism, Sir Rohan Kanhai is our real knight, not ‘Sonny’ Ramphal. It should be noted that my father, President Cheddi, often told me that Ramphal was a rank opportunist with no real loyalty to the people of Guyana and my research on Ramphal has confirmed that view. Sorry, Mr. McDonald, but ‘Sonny’ Ramphal’s slickness helped him slip through the cracks.
Sincerely,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr.)
