THE GENTLE POLITICS OF DONALD
July 7, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under Features/Columnists, Peeping Tom, Source
Donald Ramotar is the President of Guyana. As President of Guyana he holds Executive authority.
His Ministers are beholden to him. They are merely advisors. Without him, they have no Executive authority.
They are neither above him or equal to him. He is not obligated to accept their opinions. He can refuse to do so. He is the custodian of Executive authority.
There are some jurisdictions where the Cabinet holds Executive authority. Not in Guyana. It is the President who holds such authority and therefore he is not bound by any majority decision of his colleagues. He can overrule anything that his Ministers propose and which his Cabinet may agree to.
Obviously, any good President has to listen to what his Ministers say. But listening and agreeing are two different things.
Burnham listened to what his Ministers and advisers had to say. He rather enjoyed the jousting amongst his colleagues on issues. But in the end Burnham made up his mind. He had the final say. He made the final call. This is the responsibility of those in whom Executive authority is reposed. There is nothing democratic about Executive authority. Never was; never will be!
In 1977, Burnham was under pressure to moderate his socialist thrust. There were persons within his party, within his Cabinet and within the government bureaucracy who were leaning on Burnham to moderate his tone and to develop closer relations with the Jimmy Carter administration in the United States.
Burnham, for political reasons relating to his survival, was keen on improving relations with the US administration. But in 1977, he had a heart attack and he also was keen to complete his radicalization of the country as fast as possible.
Recent declassified documents from the United States indicate that the assessment of the United States was that Burnham was deeply disturbed by his split of the nationalist movement on racial lines when he created the PNC. Sources close to Burnham further felt that he was deeply jealous of Cheddi Jagan’s international reputation as a radical, revolutionary and foremost socialist theoretician. He wanted to be seen in that light.
So there were two sets of pressure bearing down on Burnham. On the one hand, pressures to moderate and on the other hand his own belief that his health problems could shorten the time he had left to complete his personal ambitions.
Ultimately, Burnham made his own decision. It was not left to his Cabinet colleagues or to those within his party pressing for moderation, or the radical wing of the PNC seeking deepening of socialist reforms.
There is no doubt that Donald Ramotar faces similar pressures. He is surrounded within his Cabinet by a strong faction that is extremely supportive of the former President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo. He himself owes his presidency to the astuteness of the former President.
But in the final analysis, these pressures do not matter. The final decision rests with Donald Ramotar. He has to decide how he wants his Presidency to be judged.
Right now the judgment of many is not in his favour. After three years, he comes across as looking and smelling just like Jagdeo. He has not put his stamp on the Presidency.
After three years, apart from his overall thrust towards greater transparency in terms of government dealings, there is nothing else to separate his policies from that of his predecessor.
Admittedly he has been pushed on the back foot by the Opposition. He has had a baptism of political fire from the Opposition. But this has been mild compared to what other political leaders of the PPP experienced. Both former Presidents Janet Jagan and Bharrat Jagdeo faced more formidable political pressure from the opposition than Ramotar has. And they tried to be different.
But not Ramotar! His Presidency is now at a crisis point. There is a view that he is merely going through the motions. That he had run out of ideas and even if he has not, he is not keen to try new approaches that would make him different from his predecessor. Others have taken this theory to another level. They have uncharitably referred to the phenomenon of seat-warming.
Those wishing to be generous to him point to the fact that he is surrounded by a government that is still loyal to Jagdeo. They have also pointed to him trying to gain control of the PPP by giving up the post of General Secretary and maneuvering allies into strategic positions within the party. But they insist that within the government he seems not to have the same impact and is therefore dependent on Jagdeo loyalists.
This brings us back to our original point. The President holds executive power. He is not bound by anything that any minister or adviser tells him. He does not have to listen to them. He certainly does not have to act on anything they say. It is they who have to be a worried about him rather than the other way around. He has the capacity and the authority to exercise his political will on those around him.
His personality also allows him to be suited to the political challenges the country faces. There are many who believe that Donald Ramotar is the most decent politician this country has ever produced. He is an honest man. He is extremely likeable. They do not come any better in these qualities than Donald Ramotar. He is gentleman but his political style need not be as gentle as his personality.
The question that the next two years will answer is whether he wants to make a difference or he is merely content on surviving his remaining two years in office and retiring to write his memoirs.
Those who like him are hopeful that when he leaves active politics, the theme of those memoirs will be about doing things his way rather than simply surviving and warming the seat of the presidency.
