President Ramotar is a weak beneficiary who is a yes man

‘Both opposition parties are prepared to call President Ramotar’s bluff on the snap poll. The PPP dictators are hinting that if the budget is voted down, it will call a general election. AFC leader, Khemraj Ramjattan, spoke to the press and opined that Ramotar wants his full term so he will not go into an early poll.
The truth and reality in this situation is that Mr. Ramotar would like to have his five-year prize but the truth of and the reality inside Mr. Ramotar’s psychology is that he is not a self-confident, ambitious, pioneering leader. Anyone who has known Mr. Ramotar from his young days with GAWU, then through his party years, then through his elevation to the PPP leadership, and with the climax of General-Secretary position, would know that he has always been a quiet back-bencher who has always stayed away from the fights, controversies and decision-making initiatives within the PPP.
The PPP duo of Janet and Cheddi Jagan never saw him as part of the indispensable school of strategists and for this reason they were prepared to part with him for almost a decade when he was posted to Czechoslovakia. No party activist with potential for leadership role will be sent abroad for ten years not to study and come back but to work at a magazine.
After the PPP came to power in 1992, it was obvious to any analyst that he was not seen as material that was necessary for transformation of Guyana. Both Cheddi and Janet Jagan were happy to let him do party work where he became a helper to Mrs. Jagan at both Freedom House and the Mirror newspaper.
Then came the jewel in the crown which turned out to be his moment of failure – he acceded to the throne of party leader.
It was a miserable period for Ramotar during which he proved to the senior apparatchiks in the PPP to be a shocking incompetent. Thousands of complaints from PPP members, supporters and ordinary citizens were left unattended over the years when he was the party General-Secretary.
.Hundreds of persons told me that Ramotar was a person who sympathized with your plight, asked for your understanding but was decent and honest enough to say he couldn’t help.
I represented the TUC at a national stakeholders’ confabulation at the Convention Centre hosted by the Ethnic Relations Committee and if you saw the difference in activism between Gail Teixeira and the PPP’s General Secretary, you would never believe he was the party’s leader.
I sat in front of him and all he said at that meeting was to whisper to me, “Freddie, ‘ya’ll talking about racism but nobody never took the PPP Government to the UN.” At another point, he whispered again to me saying; “Freddie, I know you hate Cheddi Jagan.”
The real PPP leader at that forum was Gail Teixeira. This is Ramotar for you. This is the man who wrote a letter in this newspaper asking me what the poetic essence of history means.
Well there is also the perverse essence of history where an accident produces a leader who ends up being an incident in history.
Ramotar’s incompetence as General-Secretary was in stark contrast to Mrs. Jagan. You complain to Mrs. Jagan; there is a follow up the next day and if she wants to help you then you are helped. Rohee as General-Secretary will be the opposite to Ramotar. Hate him or dislike him, Rohee will not be afraid to act when PPP supporters and citizens go to him as party leader with complaints. Rohee and Ramotar are dialectical opposites
Those who write about Ramotar must be honest and ask the question why did Jagdeo chose him, an act that caused Ralph Ramkarran to hit the roof.  Jagdeo chose Ramotar above every other leader who was entitled to be considered because Jagdeo knew that with Ramotar as de jure president, he Jagdeo, will be de facto president. It turned out this way after the 2011 elections.
The PPP’s decision to go to a snap poll will depend on the thinking and emotions of Bharrat Jagdeo, Gail Teixeira, Roger Luncheon and Clement Rohee. If there is consensus among these four, there will be early elections. The quietest and neutral voice around the table will be Ramotar. If Jagdeo wants a snap poll there will be one.
I never replied when he asked me what the poetic essence of history was. But it is the opposite to the perverse essence of history. I think Ramotar knows which one he embodies. Uncle Donald or De Donald has already become an incident in history.