Ramotar’s “Jagdeo slap” remarks unbecoming of a President – AFC Leader

Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan asserts that President Donald Ramotar’s “Jagdeo mighta slap ya” remarks is not only uncouth, despicable and unbecoming of a President, but also describes a typical case of “mouth open – story jump out.”

This Guyanese proverb, Ramjattan said, aptly fits Ramotar’s statement which was hurled to a citizen at one of his political assemblies in the Hinterland Region.
He said that Ramotar knows full well, the characteristics of his predecessor, former President Bharrat Jagdeo “and no doubt believed that Jagdeo would have delivered a slap to the critic.”
The President recently exposed the violent nature of Jagdeo when an Amerindian man questioned the former President’s record in office. President Ramotar was at the time, addressing a political rally in Aishalton and used the forum to lambaste the political opposition.
“They don’t have a record to be proud of; they don’t have a history that they can be proud of. That is why they don’t like history and they don’t like to hear about the past.”
The man retorted, “Yeah, yeah, like Jagdeo.”
“You don’t know anything about Jagdeo; if he been hay he mighta slap you, coz you stupid,” the President is heard saying on an audio recording released to the media by a villager.
It was also reported that when he was questioned about the incident, Ramotar claimed that he had a vague recollection of his remarks that Jagdeo would have slapped the cynic.
“A few people were there and were heavily drunk. One of them had been making derogatory remarks towards me and I responded to him because he was obviously sent to make mischief.”
The President’s visit to that community is among several Ramotar has been making around the country ahead of General Elections this year.
Ramjattan said that when Ramotar served as General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party /Civic (PPP/C), he was the victim of many verbal slaps from Jagdeo. “So he knows what he is talking about,” the AFC Leader remarked.
What is even more revealing, Ramjattan noted, is the President calling a questioning citizen of the country “stupid.” He contended that this is most unbecoming of a President.
He said, too, that no doubt, Ramotar’s thinking was that he was in the “bush” and in the typical PPP arrogant manner, exercised no regard or respect for the residents of the hinterland whom he would have looked on as “bush people”, yet he wants their votes.
The lawyer asserted that this disdain shown to Amerindians must see them not voting for Ramotar or his PPP administration “for that is how a corrupt and violent government should be penalized.”
Ramjattan said that what is also seen from this incident is the slow unraveling of the facade that the PPP has put up over the years concerning Amerindians. The government’s “true colours are now coming out,” he said.
Earlier, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) had said that the “feral blast” by the President at Aishalton village, depicts the character of the President and the attitude of his administration towards citizens of the country.
It added that the incident explains why the political culture has deteriorated so rapidly over the last fifteen years under Presidents Jagdeo and Ramotar, and why the public has lost respect for the current President.
The Partnership also stated that a major cause of the collapse in confidence in the government is due to the President’s own “crass, coarse and crude choice of words in public statements.”
Apart from the Aishalton incident, he cited another when President Ramotar referred to AFC Vice Chairman Moses Nagamootoo as “the jackass Nagamootoo” at the commemoration ceremony of the deaths of Cheddi and Janet Jagan in March of last year.
APNU also reminded of other statements by the President during a rally at Whim, Berbice, where he said that Nagamootoo is, “like a dog lunging at his shadow; at his reflection! He was expecting Ramjattan to make him Vice-President! Ramjattan is a puppet! Ramjattan is a sham… So, if Nagamooto think that Ramjattan go make him Vice-President, Lauraah!”
He reminded that the Head of State falsely claimed that Leader of the Opposition, Brigadier David Granger, had knowledge of 155 weapons that went missing from the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) while he was the Commander, after being issued to the People’s National Congress (PNC) Government in the 1970s.
“When those weapons were given to the PNC, the present leader of the PNC was the commander of the army at the time. And now that he is the leader of the PNC, I would expect that he would make a genuine effort to return the weapons that were given to the PNC.”
APNU noted that Ramotar, over the past three years, has degraded the high office of President of the Republic with his invective and vituperative language and as such, is bringing the entire nation into disrepute.
Granger has since called on the President to issue an apology to the indigenous community following his vile language and the violent behaviour of his guards. He had also called on the President to conduct his political campaigns with respect for citizens rather than abuse, and yesterday warned that such provocative language is damaging political, social and racial relations in this country.