Ramkarran’s revelations have cast serious doubt on Ramotar’s integrity

Dear Editor,
After a long hard year of discontent, frustration and hopelessness, the PPP hierarchy has finally decided to hold their Congress after an absence of more than three years. But the Congress will not address the issues affecting the poor and the powerless but those of their wealthy friends who have gained full control of the party and have established an economic agenda that have benefited them. This is contrary to the principles on which the party was founded. These principles have been breached by the nouveau riche economic barons, who have completely ignored the plight of the poor and the working class. This group has not only taken control of the PPP but has also taken control of the state resources as well as the up-upcoming Congress. We want our East Indian brothers and sisters to know that this PPP is not the same PPP that was founded by Cheddi and Janet Jagan and others. This is a Jagdeo and company PPP. The PPP under Cheddi Jagan was for the poor and the working class but the Jagdeo and company PPP is anti-working class. They are a greedy, selfish and uncaring bunch of people who have used the state resources to enrich themselves, relatives and friends.
Many of the delegates at the forthcoming Congress would like the party to discuss several of the issues mentioned above, but they will not be allowed because it is the leadership who sets the agenda. So much for democracy inside the PPP. The Congress will not discuss a 10% wage increase for the workers; G$15,000 per month pension for the elderly, a reduction of the toll on the Berbice River Bridge, jobs for the youths and those who want to work, and the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission to weed out the widespread corruption that are taking place at every level in the administration. They will ignore these issues because they address the needs of the poor and the working class in Guyana. What will be discussed is how to give more contracts to their Chinese Contractor friends like CHCE who charged $297,000 for urinals in the Airport Contract —which can be purchased locally for about $30,000. The Congress will not address the issue of corruption because they have no plans to end it. Ralph Ramkarran has made it quite clear that Mr. Ramotar as General Secretary of the PPP had refused to discipline a PPP member on the recommendation of Mrs. Jagan for corrupt practices. It is for this reason that President Ramotar has remained silent on the corrupt practices that took place at NCN where the Managing Director and a Senior Manager were forced to resign by the Board. If nothing else, Mr. Ramkarran’s revelations have cast serious doubt on Mr. Ramotar’s integrity and his ability to lead this nation.
The Congress will not focus the last 22 years of PPP maladministration and corrupt practices. Instead, they will use propaganda, distortions and untruths to attack the opposition on the budget cuts and the voting down of funds for the Amaila Falls project. Instead of addressing some of the promises they made in 1992, which include the promise to end the power blackouts, provide adequate potable water to the people and reduce or end corruption, the PPP leaders will criticize the Burnham regime which is a common practice for the cabal. They will not mention that they have refused to table the Local Government Elections Bill in Parliament. They will not address the high infant mortality rate, the poor services being rendered at the public hospitals, the collapse of UG and the education system, and the crisis facing the sugar industry and the malfunctioning of the white elephant at Skeldon. They will not discuss the collapse of CLICO, the billion$ missing at NICIL, and the Marriott Hotel Contract to the Chinese contractor who refused to hire Guyanese workers.
To compound this situation, its leader is not powerful enough to lead the discussion at the Congress; he continues to latch on to his predecessor advisers who dictate his economic and political agenda. We were told that he has no other choice because a gang of bullies has hijacked the PPP, which is reason for one to believe that the Jagans are turning in their graves. It is precisely for this reason that he cannot act independently; be his own man and lead the nation.
What this regime has done in the last two decades is to undo as much as possible the achievements of the previous PNC regime. They have imposed fees on UG and will not save it from collapsing, they will not clean up Georgetown, they have withdrawn financial resources from Critchlow Labour College, they have not refurbished the Cuffy Statue at the Square of the Revolution, they have not maintained or improved the Parade Ground, and they have neglected the President’s College. These spiteful and retarded actions by the PPP have set the country on a backward trend to the point where development is at a standstill and the people are in a wait-and see-mode.
In conclusion, we call on all their delegates and members who will be attending the Congress to reject this nouveau riche cabal; after all, the founder of the party would have never supported these un-cultured political yard fowls who have made the PPP into an anti-working class party and who become wealthy at the expense of the poor.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh