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Luncheon says PPP didn’t oppose SN ads boycott

Posted By Stabroek staff On May 6, 2012 In Local |

 

Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon on Thursday refuted Ralph Ramkarran’s claim that the PPP had opposed the cut-off of state advertisements to Stabroek News in 2006, saying that while there was disagreement among executive members, they ultimately backed the decision.

Ramkarran had stated earlier this week that the ruling party had opposed the removal of advertisements, but was ignored by the government of former president Bharrat Jagdeo. This was the first time an executive member of the party had publicly disclosed the PPP’s position on the matter.

 

“I don’t believe the statement Mr Ramkarran allegedly made is accurate,” Luncheon said. “It certainly did not reflect my recall [and] I would not be speaking out of turn to establish that indeed it was not unanimously reviewed and accepted by each and every member of the party’s executive,” Luncheon told Stabroek News yesterday when asked about the issue.

 

He referred to the term democratic centralism, which he says means, “we discuss, we disagree and as soon as a decision is made we are beholden. So I would want you to “assess” that the tenets of democratic centralism was applied in that matter and hence the decision was supported by the People’s Progressive Party executive.”

 

Luncheon is an executive member of the party.

 

Ramkarran’s account was given in response to an editorial which appeared in Monday’s edition of the Stabroek News. The editorial had stated that the Jagdeo administration’s axing of ads to Stabroek News in 2006, “was a trifling matter for all in the PPP and its government except for the late, former president, Mrs Janet Jagan who called clearly for an end to the advertising boycott to no avail.”

 

Ramkarran said in a letter to the editor: “The PPP did not consider the withdrawal of the advertisements to be a trifling matter.

 

It was extensively discussed both at the Executive Committee and later, the Central Committee of the PPP which called on the government to restore the advertisements to the Stabroek News. The government ignored the decision and since the PPP did not practice `party paramountcy’ there was no way of enforcing it. It is not known by me whether those members of the Central Committee of the PPP who were senior members of the Cabinet advocated in that forum the decision of the PPP leadership to which there was no dissentient voice, or whether they remained silent.”

 

It is widely believed that Jagdeo himself instructed the ads cut-off because of this newspaper’s criticisms of his government and because he wanted to help pave the way for the advent of the government-friendly Guyana Times. The Jagdeo administration had argued that the decision was a purely business one by the Government Information Agency (GINA) because it wanted more value for its advertising dollar. Ads were then placed solely with the Guyana Chronicle and the Kaieteur News. In 2008, state ads were restored to Stabroek News without explanation, but it later became clear that this had been done to enable ads to be placed in the Guyana Times. One year after its launching the Guyana Times began to receive state ads and its volume began to rival that of the other private newspapers.

 

State ads were eventually pulled from all private media in the second half of 2010 after the government said it would use an e-procurement site and the state newspaper, the Guyana Chronicle.

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Luncheaon in his old age should make peace with himself. His Eternity should not be influenced by his PPP handlers. For all his deeds so far, he should give some serious thoughts about Hell. He has been covering the corruption of CBJ right down to Jagdeo. 

S
Originally Posted by Prashad:

Ramkarran should come out and make it clear that he is supporting the Jagans. There is not shame in saying that he fully supports Nadira.

Ralph is from the Jagan camp. The PPP better be careful before it breaks up into two camps, or three when we consider that Moses already formed his camp.

FM
Originally Posted by Prashad:

Only Nadira can put the pieces together now.

PPP is going through a period of change. Donald's success or failure will decide the future of the PPP.

 

The CC of the PPP needs to infuse young members and mould young, bright and educated leaders if it is to survive in the next ten years.

FM
Originally Posted by redux:

Luncheon says PPP didn’t oppose SN ads boycott

Posted By Stabroek staff On May 6, 2012 In Local |

 

Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon on Thursday refuted Ralph Ramkarran’s claim that the PPP had opposed the cut-off of state advertisements to Stabroek News in 2006, saying that while there was disagreement among executive members, they ultimately backed the decision.

Ramkarran had stated earlier this week that the ruling party had opposed the removal of advertisements, but was ignored by the government of former president Bharrat Jagdeo. This was the first time an executive member of the party had publicly disclosed the PPP’s position on the matter.

 

“I don’t believe the statement Mr Ramkarran allegedly made is accurate,” Luncheon said. “It certainly did not reflect my recall [and] I would not be speaking out of turn to establish that indeed it was not unanimously reviewed and accepted by each and every member of the party’s executive,” Luncheon told Stabroek News yesterday when asked about the issue.

 

He referred to the term democratic centralism, which he says means, “we discuss, we disagree and as soon as a decision is made we are beholden. So I would want you to “assess” that the tenets of democratic centralism was applied in that matter and hence the decision was supported by the People’s Progressive Party executive.”

 

Luncheon is an executive member of the party.

 

Ramkarran’s account was given in response to an editorial which appeared in Monday’s edition of the Stabroek News. The editorial had stated that the Jagdeo administration’s axing of ads to Stabroek News in 2006, “was a trifling matter for all in the PPP and its government except for the late, former president, Mrs Janet Jagan who called clearly for an end to the advertising boycott to no avail.”

 

Ramkarran said in a letter to the editor: “The PPP did not consider the withdrawal of the advertisements to be a trifling matter.

 

It was extensively discussed both at the Executive Committee and later, the Central Committee of the PPP which called on the government to restore the advertisements to the Stabroek News. The government ignored the decision and since the PPP did not practice `party paramountcy’ there was no way of enforcing it. It is not known by me whether those members of the Central Committee of the PPP who were senior members of the Cabinet advocated in that forum the decision of the PPP leadership to which there was no dissentient voice, or whether they remained silent.”

 

It is widely believed that Jagdeo himself instructed the ads cut-off because of this newspaper’s criticisms of his government and because he wanted to help pave the way for the advent of the government-friendly Guyana Times. The Jagdeo administration had argued that the decision was a purely business one by the Government Information Agency (GINA) because it wanted more value for its advertising dollar. Ads were then placed solely with the Guyana Chronicle and the Kaieteur News. In 2008, state ads were restored to Stabroek News without explanation, but it later became clear that this had been done to enable ads to be placed in the Guyana Times. One year after its launching the Guyana Times began to receive state ads and its volume began to rival that of the other private newspapers.

 

State ads were eventually pulled from all private media in the second half of 2010 after the government said it would use an e-procurement site and the state newspaper, the Guyana Chronicle.

reminder of where ramkaran stands  - out!

FM
Originally Posted by yuji22:
Originally Posted by Prashad:

Only Nadira can put the pieces together now.

PPP is going through a period of change. Donald's success or failure will decide the future of the PPP.

 

The CC of the PPP needs to infuse young members and mould young, bright and educated leaders if it is to survive in the next ten years.

You-gee......you have to come clean.....

You cannot support the infusion and practice of Buggery....

and hope the PPP will also find bright and educated leaders which it needs now to survive.

 

If you saying from one side of yuh mouth....

yuh love, practice & support dem Buggermen.....

 

you must not try to talk from the other side of your mouth....

The CC of the PPP needs to infuse young members and mould young, bright and educated leaders if it is to survive in the next ten years.

 

NO YOUNG,BRIGHT or EDUCATED PERSON

WOULD WANT TO MIX-UP IN

NASTINESS, CORRUPTION OR BUGGERY.

 

You-gee......

you have to come clean.....

FM
Originally Posted by redux:

Luncheon says PPP didn’t oppose SN ads boycott

Posted By Stabroek staff On May 6, 2012 In Local |

 

Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon on Thursday refuted Ralph Ramkarran’s claim that the PPP had opposed the cut-off of state advertisements to Stabroek News in 2006, saying that while there was disagreement among executive members, they ultimately backed the decision.

Ramkarran had stated earlier this week that the ruling party had opposed the removal of advertisements, but was ignored by the government of former president Bharrat Jagdeo. This was the first time an executive member of the party had publicly disclosed the PPP’s position on the matter.

 

“I don’t believe the statement Mr Ramkarran allegedly made is accurate,” Luncheon said. “It certainly did not reflect my recall [and] I would not be speaking out of turn to establish that indeed it was not unanimously reviewed and accepted by each and every member of the party’s executive,” Luncheon told Stabroek News yesterday when asked about the issue.

 

He referred to the term democratic centralism, which he says means, “we discuss, we disagree and as soon as a decision is made we are beholden. So I would want you to “assess” that the tenets of democratic centralism was applied in that matter and hence the decision was supported by the People’s Progressive Party executive.”

 

Luncheon is an executive member of the party.

 

Ramkarran’s account was given in response to an editorial which appeared in Monday’s edition of the Stabroek News. The editorial had stated that the Jagdeo administration’s axing of ads to Stabroek News in 2006, “was a trifling matter for all in the PPP and its government except for the late, former president, Mrs Janet Jagan who called clearly for an end to the advertising boycott to no avail.”

 

Ramkarran said in a letter to the editor: “The PPP did not consider the withdrawal of the advertisements to be a trifling matter.

 

It was extensively discussed both at the Executive Committee and later, the Central Committee of the PPP which called on the government to restore the advertisements to the Stabroek News. The government ignored the decision and since the PPP did not practice `party paramountcy’ there was no way of enforcing it. It is not known by me whether those members of the Central Committee of the PPP who were senior members of the Cabinet advocated in that forum the decision of the PPP leadership to which there was no dissentient voice, or whether they remained silent.”

 

It is widely believed that Jagdeo himself instructed the ads cut-off because of this newspaper’s criticisms of his government and because he wanted to help pave the way for the advent of the government-friendly Guyana Times. The Jagdeo administration had argued that the decision was a purely business one by the Government Information Agency (GINA) because it wanted more value for its advertising dollar. Ads were then placed solely with the Guyana Chronicle and the Kaieteur News. In 2008, state ads were restored to Stabroek News without explanation, but it later became clear that this had been done to enable ads to be placed in the Guyana Times. One year after its launching the Guyana Times began to receive state ads and its volume began to rival that of the other private newspapers.

 

State ads were eventually pulled from all private media in the second half of 2010 after the government said it would use an e-procurement site and the state newspaper, the Guyana Chronicle.

THE PROMISE OF 1950

  

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Ralph Ramkarran

 

This is an appropriate time, on the occasion of the celebration of Guyana’s 48th Independence Anniversary, only two years before age 50, to begin the assessment of our condition as an independent nation and try to assess the future. Such a discourse is even more urgent at this time when it must be clear to all that Guyana’s post independence political dispensation is poised for a transformation. While politicians contend with the pressures of managing, or even acknowledging, new political developments, leaving frustration in their wake, there is no doubt that change is upon us – change so dramatic that it will transform our political landscape.

The discourse could begin by asking the question: What did a shovelman (Fred Bowman), a Hindu Priest (Pandit Misir), a lawyer of Chinese heritage (Rudy Luck,), a dentist (Cheddi Jagan), a lawyer and a Guyana Scholar (Forbes Burnham), a transport supervisor and trade unionist of mixed but dominant European extraction (Frank Van Sertima), a school teacher (Sydney King), a mixed heritage transport worker (Ivan Cendrecourt), a woman optician (Sheila La Taste), an American-born woman (Janet Jagan) and a trade unionist (Hubert Critchlow), mostly young people, have in common? These are 11 of the 22 General Council members of the PPP of 1950, chosen at random.

The General Council laid the foundation for our modern political development by mass mobilization, demanding universal adult suffrage, independence and socialism. As the true founding fathers and mothers of our nation, by merely coming together from such disparate backgrounds, they sent a message that a successful political movement in Guyana and genuine economic and political liberation and progress and prosperity for our nation, could only be achieved by ethnic unity and broad class solidarity. It is the fiery denunciations of oppression, the soaring rhetoric of liberation, uttered with purposeful intent by young professionals and workers of all heritages, men and women clad in red and white, that inspired the poor still living in urban ghettoes and rural logies. It is such inspirational language, never heard before, from people of all colours and classes on a single platform, that resonated so deeply within our psyche, which created the first stirrings of independent nationhood, and which have led us to celebrate tomorrow.

This narrative needs to note the cataclysmic events after 1950. These did not shatter the promise of 1950 but merely postponed its realization. At times it has been hard to hold on to, such as through the violence of the early 1960s and the era of rigged elections and economic decline, led by some who articulated the dream of 1950 with stirring oratory. The promise was not shattered because the tenacity of our people, who survived slavery and indenture, did not then and will not now, allow it to slip from our grasp. The centuries of pain have taught us the lessons of sustaining our dreams of freedom, and of forgiveness, without which we could not have survived. A demonstration of this lesson was the silent embrace between Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham on May 26, 1966.

In the heat of the early 1960s the PPP proposed a coalition government and elicited the help of Eric Williams and Kwame Nkrumah to help to persuade the PNC. In the depressing period of the late 1970s with election postponement and constitutional imposition in the air, the PPP proposed a National Patriotic Front and a government based thereon. During the period of authoritarian rule these initiatives kept alive the promise of 1950. The PNCR in 2002 under its Leader, Desmond Hoyte, accepted the promise as the  way forward for Guyana, restoring this severed promise.

As if fate conspires to postpone the realization of the promise of 1950, the elections of 1992 brought home to the PPP a 52 percent absolute majority and the then rejectionist posture of the PNC, both pre and post election, together with the mood of post election triumphalism within the PPP, ruled out any initiative toward political unity.

Now, once again, Guyana is on the cusp of profound political developments of such an historic nature that they will transform our nation and its role in the region and the world. It now has to be within the contemplation of the top leadership of the PPP, what the broad leadership already knows,  that a minority government cannot be sustained. This, of course will never be admitted, unless the next attempt which is likely to be made sooner rather than later to obtain an absolute majority at new elections, is unsuccessful. If so, there is no doubt that our current leadership possesses the experience, will and statesmanship to guide the difficult process of reconciling enormous differences. Dogged insistence on minority rule a second time around will only temporarily postpone the inevitable.

It is a distinct possibility, if statesmanship prevails, that the beginning of the second half of the first century of Guyana as an independent nation, two years from now, will be marked by the continuation of the effort by Guyana’s political leadership, in conditions of national unity, to realize the promise of the founders of modern politics and of our nation of social justice and economic development. The people of Guyana paid tribute to this idea of 1950 on the passing of Cheddi Jagan in 1997 by their tens of thousands – man, woman and child, rich and poor, of every age, colour and class. A national unity government by Guyana’s 50th Anniversary will truly celebrate Cheddi Jagan’s lifelong commitment to the ideals of 1950.

 

FM

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