It is Freddie who’s the ‘nincompoop’

FREDDIE calls President Donald Ramotar, a nincompoop President (KN Sep 21), but it is he who has shown himself to be a nincompoop. No self-respecting writer uses that kind of language to describe anyone, not least a President of a country. No respected academic uses that kind of language in any writing. In college, students are trained to respect others. Academics are trained not to attack people personally. Freddie is guilty of all of these violations.
Kissoon’s letter (KN Sep 21) derogating President Ramotar’s ability and capacity as President saying His Excellency is not interested in governance (the day-to-day affairs and challenging issues confronting the nation) but that he is only in office to enjoy the perks that come with the title.
Nothing can be further from the truth. Freddie is dead wrong; he does not understand the nature of the Presidency which requires a lot of movement, performance of ceremonial acts, and travelling abroad to shore up assistance for Guyana.
Had Freddie studied political science, he would have understood why the President is required to travel a lot and move around quite a bit in Guyana. Freddie said there is no such subject as Political Science; he studied history. David Hinds, Baytoram Ramharack, Henry Jeffrey, Swami Aksharnanda, myself, among others, did doctoral studies in political science. I am willing to teach Freddie political science for free, so he can comprehend political issues.
On politics, the President has shown to be very engaging locally, meeting people in his office and at Freedom House as well as travelling around the various corners of the country to meet with people to address their concerns. He meets constituents all the time and he addresses pressing issues non-stop. That is how the Presidency works.
The fact that he does not meet Freddie does not mean he is not interested in the affairs of the State. And the fact that he is on the move all the time does not mean he loves to travel; he is performing his job that entails a lot of travelling to address the affairs of the state.
Somehow, Freddie feel Donald should be everywhere at the same time. The President can’t be everywhere at the same time as he is not omnipresent; he is not God. He can’t solve every problem as he is not omnipotent. He does not have a solution for every issue as he is not omniscient; no one is and no one has a solution for every problem. He can’t solve all problems at the same time; but he tries his level best and he addresses every issue some of which are “unsolvable”. Obstacles are placed in his way including obstacles strewn along Ramotar’s path by Freddie and other opponents. Gosh, even Freddie, who claims he has a graduate degree in German history, can’t solve a simple problem in Guyana. Freddie can’t even write an honest truthful commentary about events in Guyana or on Donald; he makes countless errors and blunders in every commentary. At least Donald, who does not claim to have a graduate degree (not in German history anyway) makes an effort to address a problem when it is brought to his attention. Donald does not lie. Donald has not avoided a pressing issue. And most recently he travelled to Essequibo to address the protests over non-payment to rice farmers.
The President does move around locally and internationally a lot to address concerns; that is the nature of the job. Which executive leader of a country does not move around frequently locally to galvanise support for policy making. Kamla travels almost monthly to shore up T&T economy. Obama travels monthly to secure business interests. Ditto Stephen Harper of Canada, Cameron of England, and Merkel of Germany.
Today’s executive leader has to travel frequently overseas because there is an international or regional summit of leaders somewhere and Guyana belongs to so many organisations. Guyana needs representation at these summits because her interests are at stake and she benefits from them financially. A few years before he died, David DeCaires said he did not wish the Presidency on anyone in Guyana – an acknowledgment of the difficulties of the job.
I served as President of student government in my college days – it is a difficult, time consuming voluntary job that comes with little benefits for which one gets little thanks. Analogously, a country’s president can hardly please constituents and even less so critics like Freddie – who never finds anything with which to compliment or to praise Ramotar or his predecessor or Dr. or Mrs. Jagan when they have done so many positive things for the country. People feel Ramotar works hard and contrary to what Freddie writes about the President, the people see Freddie as a nincompoop and fraudster. In my latest poll in Guyana, people noted that the President “is trying”. This is a lot more than what they had to say about Freddie. Also, people respect Ramotar for his honesty as President; no such words were used to describe Freddie’s writings. And contrary to what Freddie thinks, the PPP will not dump Ramotar at the next election although they prefer a younger leader; we shall know soon if the no confidence motion passes. Donald is expected to lead the party into the next election unless he himself decides to call it a day.

VISHNU BISRAM

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