Authenticity or asininity

President Donald Ramotar is proving to be one of the world’s most inept leaders. How can any President request the authenticity of a taped conversation between a journalist and one of his Ministers when the Minister has acknowledged it was his voice? The Attorney-General has publicly said that he was betrayed by the other person on the line. Minister Manickchand has condemned the AG on a section of the recording.  Mr. Nandlall has publicly apologized for his comments on women on the tape.
The asininity gets deeper when you consider that the President himself said that the recording was manipulated and taken out of context. That is a totally different situation to the one in which you claimed that the voices in the phone need to be tested for confirmation. How can you say that your words were manipulated to give a different meaning but in the same breath you are denying that it was your voice?
Ramotar drags himself into deeper fields of incompetence by also asserting that the taping was done illegally and therefore that is the contestation of his government. Ramotar has to make up his mind. Was the conversation tampered with to make Nandlall say things that conveyed desires and vexations that do not exist?  Is Nandlall the voice on the machine but since the recording was not sanctioned under the law, the Government will not act against Nandlall? Or is there doubt as to whose voice is it on the tape?
President Ramotar has to choose one of the three positions. The three explanations contradict each other and cannot be reconciled. I cannot say my words were taken out of context when I criticized Barbados then in the same breath cry foul that it was not my voice. Mr. Ramotar is jumping from one shaky plank to the other and it only makes him look inelegant in the eyes of the nation; and that is putting it mildly.
Nandlall has spoken. His position is clear – I didn’t expect my friend to record the chat. It is Ramotar who is taking Nandlall through a minefield by a series of changing silhouettes. One wonders if Mr. Ramotar thinks before he acts. If he is sending the item to be authenticated then what happens if the voice is Nandlall’s? What does he do then?
And if he is seeking authenticity then why not ask Nandlall to temporarily step down as President Hoyte did with Robert Corbin and President Jagdeo with Nirmal Rehka? The point is Mr. Ramotar is in a confusing vortex which demonstrates extremely poor understanding of the elementary principles of political administration.
Mr. Ramotar will only be saved embarrassment when Nandlall’s voice is confirmed because by then, he may not be in power. By the time the report comes back, Guyana would have had a general election and Mr. Ramotar may become a mere historical mention. But let us assume that the report authenticates Nandlall’s voice, any school boy who has seen Ramotar perform the past three years can easily predict his stance.
He will say that notwithstanding the verification of the recording, it was illegally taped and therefore that is the overriding consideration of the Government. And the Government is convinced that parts of the recording were stitched together to make it appear as a continuous dialogue. The matter will end there for Mr. Ramotar. I am inflexibly convinced in my mind that this will be the reaction of Mr. Ramotar.
What is incredibly faulty in such an attitude is why then seek verification of Nandlall’s voice if you know that as President you will not sanction him and you will not accept that he had committed a venal act? But this is the man Ramotar, a politician catapulted into the leadership of a country for which he had no desire.
On leaving office, I honestly think Ramotar could be best described as the reluctant President.
What we need to take into consideration is if the authenticity decision had any input from the President himself. What about if Nandlall, himself or Luncheon or Gail Teixeira or Priya Manickchand just got up at a Cabinet session and exclaimed “Damn the opposition, we will close this thing by saying we are sending the tape overseas for it to be authenticated, end of story.”
And Ramotar just sat back and said; “Yea maan, dat is a brilliant stroke, go with it.” And that is how the authenticity thing came about. From authenticity to prorogue – Donald Ramotar’s presidency is in a vortex. It would be analytically correct to say it is only a matter of time before he becomes an obscure footnote. It took Ramotar just three years to self-destruct.