Moses Nagamootoo: Macbeth resurrected
I have done two columns with snippets of biography of Rupert Roopnaraine (see the following two pieces – Wednesday, May 1, 2013, “The Sky’s Wild Noise” drowned me with pessimism” and Sunday, May 14, 2018, The bird that flew away from the sky’s wild noise.”
I want to take a look at positive figures of the past that have not fulfilled a great legacy; people who promised so much but faltered badly along the way.
After this piece here on Nagamootoo, I will assess the decline of Clive Thomas. In an editorial, the Stabroek News posited that Nagamootoo has reached the climax of his career. The paper added that he will not be the president. He certainly will not be in 2020. The configurations of party politics definitely exclude him from that prospect.
It is certain that in terms of power possession, Nagamootoo in 2020 would have reached the end of his career. Even if he is made a minister or an ambassador, that would be a demotion rather than a continuation of power possession.
Nagamootoo was seen as a rising star in the PPP in the seventies but with Boysie Ramkarran, Ranji Chandisingh, Vincent Teekah, Navin Chandarpal and Feroze Mohammed, his chances of being elevated by the Jagan duo of husband and wife were opaque. The last two names the Jagans preferred over Nagamootoo among the younger leaders. There was always a lingering suspicion in both Jagans that Nagamootoo was a Shakespearian character given to ambition.
Nagamootoo saw his chance of being numero uno when Ramkarrran died and Chandisingh and Teekah defected to the PNC. With Chandisingh, Teekah and Ramkarran gone, the Jagans closed off any avenue for their being a successor to Cheddi. But Nagamootoo was indeed the Guyanese Macbeth. The seventies presented him with an opportunity for him to outmanoeuvre Chandarpal and Mohamed.
Whereas the Jagans instilled a feverish suspicion in their young leaders about an association with Walter Rodney and the WPA, Nagamootoo didn’t succumb to that pressure. He looked at the WPA’s activism as his Macbethian moment. If he openly endorses WPA’s politics, it raises his national stature even if the PPP is not impressed. If the WPA topples Burnham, then by association he could play a huge part in the succeeding government.
His hopes were dashed. Rodney died and the WPA never regained its passion and purpose. It was time for Nagamootoo to settle back in the PPP and try to be seen by the world as second to Cheddi. He was seen as such because he was better at oratory than Chandarpal and Mohamed but the suspicion of the Jagans remained.
Nagamootoo’s stature in the PPP in the eighties rose sharply. In 1992 the PPP came to power. Nagamootoo committed political suicide afterwards.
What many PPP leaders always feared about Nagamootoo – his Macbethian dreams – came into the open. Visiting the interior and speaking to villagers, President Jagan was asked about his successor. Using slang language that was essentially casual, Jagan jokingly said; “Oh there are lots of comrades, like comrade Moses, comrade Janet…” Nagamootoo ran away with those vague words and proclaimed that Jagan anointed his as successor. PPP leader weren’t amused.
Then came the moment of immolation and the end of the Macbethian drama in the PPP. After 28 years in the wilderness, the PPP finally came to office. But Moses wasn’t interested in “minister wuk.” He left the Cabinet to train as a lawyer to succeed Jagan and become the President of Guyana.
Jagan died and when that happened Nagamootoo’s dream of ever becoming the president was decapitated by the implacable anger of all PPP leaders.
The PPP would have chosen anyone to become the presidential candidate in 1997 but not Nagamootoo. There wasn’t any hierarchical player in the PPP that would have supported him. Nagamootoo told me that Mrs. Jagan was so contemptuous of him that Jagdeo was chosen when he, Nagamootoo, was out of the country.
But morbid desires to rise to the top don’t die easily. Even when he and Jagdeo were in gladiatorial battle, Moses chose not to leave Parliament and the PPP waiting to see if he would get the nod for the presidential candidate slot for 2011.
After Jagdeo swore over his dead body that Moses would not be rehabilitated into the PPP, Moses parted the sea and went over to the AFC a few months before the 2011 general elections.
He is the Prime Minister and not one school boy who loves the APNU+AFC government would be so silly and shameless to admit that Moses has real state power as Prime Minister. We would never know if he wanted it. The fact is he hasn’t got it.