Ralph Ramkarran has said what Guyana was afraid of voicing
DEAR EDITOR,
Guyana is at the crossroads and it is decision time.
Over the last few days, Kaieteur News was following a story in which the Guyana Times newspaper reportedly carried a poll, supposedly initiated by the Opposition. We now know that the poll was fake and only existed in minds of a few persons who wanted to propel Jagdeo back into power.
The Guyana Times insisted that Jagdeo is more popular than President Ramotar. The few persons behind this campaign had to be powerful, because they had so much reach in their desperate campaign that they even were in position to order the Guyana Chronicle, a paper that belongs to taxpayers, to carry the same story.
How this happened is a serious slap in the face of Guyanese and gross disrespect to the sitting President.
President Ramotar should immediately take stern action, sending home the editors and have those responsible for giving the instructions to carry the article in the Guyana Chronicle, fired or sanctioned. Surely this instruction came from higher up. Surely the editors had to know this was a disrespectful piece designed to undermine the President.
The issue also speaks volume of the abuse of power by some in Guyana and what Jagdeo’s ambition has reduced the ruling PPP to.
Mr Ralph Ramkarran, who we now know was sidelined and silenced under the Jagdeo administration, has over the weekend placed into words what many Guyanese know and were afraid to say.
In a campaign for a third term for the 2011 elections, a billboard had Jagdeo depicted as a man of vision, courage and achievement. Yes indeed…he had the vision to engineer a takeover of the media landscape; the courage to pull down the PPP party and chase away many supporters; and his achievements included strategically placing his friends and family in positions to make billions while poor people were sidelined.
The present Government would do well to call in the FBI, Interpol and even the Swiss-based anti-money laundering body to investigate what played out and whose friends and families stole and even hid billions under the former administration.
The President could even begin to think of an ambitious 75% win at the poll if he starts at the grassroots, wooing the likes of Ralph Ramkarran, Khemraj Ramjattan and Moses Nagamootoo, and work with them to lead this country forward. We can no longer bleed. Maybe even think of giving Ramjattan and Nagamootoo a ministry each. A different way of thinking for us, perhaps? It is not unheard of.
Our country is bleeding. There is nothing stopping corruption. The Government has taken the easy way out asking for the people to give evidence. This is gross disrespect. Is that our job? The evidence is there. How come a minister in just a few years could own a mansion?
Today we read of China seizing almost US$14.5B from its ex-chief security officer. We read of other countries, even neighbouring Trinidad in which a woman, yes a woman, has shamed her regional colleagues by sending home or letting go 12 ministers under her tenure. Unheard of.
We are now seeing how one man ambitiously set about putting a plan together to remain in office, even at the even expense of our country and his party. He sidelined patriotic, good Guyanese in the process and broke many hearts who believed he was sincere.
As Mr Ramkarran so clearly said, unless the grip on the throat of the party and Government is loosened, Guyana will go down the road of no return. It is time we take back Guyana.
Incidentally, if Mr Jagdeo currently has an office in the Office of the President, as it is being bandied around on the road, then perhaps the President may consider asking him to leave.
Cobeer Persaud