COURAGE, inner strength, a deep resolve to take the tough road when necessary, these abilities delineate the defining leader, the one who rises up to shape society.

What qualities prepare a man, a woman to become the one who leads his people?
We asked President Donald Ramotar and First Lady, Deolatchmie Ramotar to outline for the Guyanese nation the foundational family values that made President Ramotar the man of the moment in our nation’s history.
Today, he faces a monument of challenges, with his courageous move to prorogate Parliament, with grotesque treats of street protests in Georgetown, with a political quagmire so stifling his nation, that his decisive, visionary, courageous leadership, in this moment, could forever define the six peoples of this land.
The First Lady’s insight into her husband’s character provides a crucial glimpse into the kind of man he is, and the kind of leader who stands at the helm of the ship of State as we navigate these rough, stormy waters.
The Guyana Chronicle sat down with the President and First Lady at State House last week for an informal chat, as they celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary, one of the most successful marriages in the history of Guyana. In the annals of the line of Presidents in this country, the First Couple rank with the best in family life, in the league of only President Cheddi Jagan and Janet Jagan for stability and exemplary domestic accomplishment.
President Ramotar sang the praises of a deep family culture, noting that the family forms the foundation for society, as the first grounding of social units. Out of the family grows a village, and a city and a nation, he said, underlining his conviction that family comes first.
Mrs. Ramotar said though 40 years of marriage seems “like a long time, it doesn’t seem like that to us,” noting the fact that she remembers every detail of those first years of them getting to know each other, and the early days of the marriage, when they rented a place in Alberttown, Georgetown, and prepared to battle life’s stormy journey, together, always upholding each other.
“It seems like just yesterday,” President Ramotar said, expressing a kind of “surprise” that so much time elapsed in their life.
He looks on his accomplishment as nothing major, as not even an accomplishment, because he said it just happened, with the years rolling by. This attitude of humility, of never taking the credit or seeking self-glory, characterises President Ramotar. He approaches life with a sense of service, of giving, of opening his heart to possibilities.
“I think when we got married we set out to live a successful marriage, with children who succeed, and with understanding between us, where there’s no major domestic issues and so on,” Mrs. Ramotar said, outlining how simple, how with a kind of noble ordinariness, the couple set out on their journey of life together.
This extraordinary ability to embrace ordinariness, to maintain a constant hold on the simplicity of daily living, comes across strikingly from the Ramotars. One wonders at their powerful performance as a couple, for they achieved the dream life, now serving their nation as the First Couple. Yet, for them there’s no grand dream, no selfish ambition, no major aspiration to be the best. They seem to simply flow with the tide, and yet their life speaks volumes of their profound influence on their world.
Today, they hold Guyana in their hands, they play a defining role in the Commonwealth Caribbean and in South America through the President’s foreign policy initiatives, and they determine what role Guyana plays on the world stage, through the United Nations and other global organisations of nation states.
Talking to the Ramotars, one would think they would be brimful of big ideas and grand plans, but their absolute humility and selfless beauty showcase a 21st century leadership style that is different, engaging and suitable to the new world order.
President Ramotar comes across as your friend, talking to him. The First Lady is open, cool, pleasant and candid, authentic and real in conversation. She pours out her heart, in a warm homey way.
The President laughs easily, sitting relaxed and informal, bantering easily in Creolese if need be, and shows a consciousness of his surroundings, a presence of mind, that makes you forget he is the most important person in the nation today. Even their accomplishments as a family leave them with a sense of awe, in gratitude for a life blessed with dreamlike beauty. “I must say that our togetherness is more than I expected. Our children are good to us. But I hope we soon have grandchildren,” Mrs. Ramotar said with a pleasant laugh, But that word – “togetherness” – echoes across the interview. They work for togetherness, with President Ramotar showing early in their marriage a progressive attitude towards her as a woman. The First Lady worked full time as a nurse, and the President played the role of homemaker, taking care of the three kids as babies, feeding them, changing them, putting them to bed at nights, when she went off to nurse the infirmed at hospitals.
He joined her in the kitchen, helping prepare meals.
“Family life is important. On reflection, because I never gave it much thought, but I think it’s extremely important to have a good family life. It’s a good background. All my family life I’ve been involved in politics, being away from home a lot, and so I think if I didn’t have a sound and stable family life, I would not have been able to give as much as I gave to the political struggle of the Party and the country. It allows me to focus,” the President said, his voice somber. “My family facilitated me giving so much to my country,” he said.
The First Lady said she enjoys “a life on my own. It’s important that you keep your independence, and have a life as your own. I think me being away, working, coming home, and him coming home after working, it made us stronger, bonded us. When we got married, we both learned to cook together. He would keep me company in the kitchen, because I disliked being in the kitchen alone.”
When they got married on November 5th of 1974, they had no idea what the road ahead looked like. “When we got married we had no idea I would be President. All I wanted to do was make a contribution to the political struggle. I’ve never set a goal that I would be President. All I wanted to do was make a contribution, as much as I could. My only motivation, in joining the Party, was to make a contribution to the struggle for free and fair elections. As a boy growing up, I attended the St Andrew’s school opposite the Parliament, in a very troubled time in Guyana, after the 1961 elections. I developed my political consciousness quite early. And I was conscious of how, as a boy growing up, quite early, even in my own village in Karia Karia itself that the PPP (People’s Progressive Party) had the interest of the country at heart, and it would be the Party that would see our country come together. I joined the Party to free our country because I felt the Party was the one that would change our country for the better,” the President said.
He met Mrs. Ramotar at the Guyana Technical Institute, where they both studied, and he tried his best to woo her, but his advances were “robustly rebuffed,” he said, laughing heartily as the First Lady smiled with fond memories.
But then it seems divine fate interceded, as the two had parted ways, proceeding overseas to study. However, both happened to return home at the same time in 1973, and happened to be on the Demerara River ferry, spotting each other. This time, Mrs. Ramotar approached him, and said hello. And that was that. The two got married a year later.
He had joined the PPP at the age of 17, “as a card carrying member,” and dedicated his life to the political struggle of securing free and fair elections for his nation. It was to be a long, hard, sacrificial struggle, with the Party achieving it only in 1992.
He grew up in a remote hinterland community, Karia Karia village, where his mother was born. His father, from the West Coast Demerara, met his Mom in Karia Karia while working in the timber industry in the then remote community. Mrs. Ramotar, born and raised in Essequibo, moved to Georgetown at the age of 19, and there met the President, the two lives converging into the togetherness of their single journey into the history books, and into the annals of human destiny, as First Family of a 21st century nation, shaping and defining us, Guyanese, on a quest to overcome the divisive, antagonistic dysfunction that bedevils the society.
The President saw political persecution early in life, when the Government of the People’s National Congress (PNC) asked his Dad to stop his affiliation with the PPP, or lose his timber grant. His father made the economic sacrifice, and moved to the West Coast, where he opened a shop, but struggled immensely, with President Ramotar working as a young man in Georgetown to support the family, including younger siblings. His Dad had to give up life in Karia Karia, and it pains the President to have gone through that experience.
So the political struggle became a personal quest, to free his nation of such injustice, that his Dad had suffered.
So one of the serious talks he had with Mrs. Ramotar, who is still “not a card carrying member of the PPP, but a supporter of the Party,” was to emphasise that they would never migrate, but that he would dedicate his days to the political cause.
Mrs. Ramotar said the President is not a man “you could ever be angry with. He’s the one who would smooth things off. He has that ability to communicate well. Very peaceful, calm, he would never stress you out. Even with the children, he’s the force that would get things done.”
Yet, the President never thinks of himself as a role model, he says. He believes in being humble, never portraying himself as someone people should look up to. He said everyone’s circumstances are different, and so this philosophy of respecting and understanding each person’s unique outlook on life, and considering each person’s different situation, highlights how he relates to people.
President Ramotar’s hobby is singing. His deep, resonating voice lends itself well to entertainment, and with his well-trimmed white beard, he passes for a Guyanese Kenny Rogers. He enjoys country music, and Georgetowners could hear him around town at karaoke sessions, singing with a smooth, professional style. In fact, one gets the impression he could easily have been a professional singer.
Multifaceted, talented, determined, steely strong and courageous, yet coming across as familiar, soft and easy-going, the Guyanese President is a man of many facets, of a multi-dimensional character that could be a leadership study in its own right. He rises to lead men and women, to shape and define his world, and yet comes across as the humblest, most amazingly simple soul in the room. It’s an astonishing thing to behold.
Mrs. Ramotar said he’s kind, considerate and humble, and even now, people who know the President call him “Uncle Donald,” rather than refer to him as President. He maintains a homely, familiar style in his relating with people, never showing arrogance, pride or selfish authority.
Approachable, easy-going, considerate, humble, the President comes across as a soft personality. Yet, analysing his life accomplishments reveals a deep inner strength and resolve that is solid as steel. With a woman like Mrs. Ramotar at his side, his accent up the ladder of success seems a natural course. The two, holding hands, talking in sync, laughing, pleasant and agreeable with each other, seem made for each other, divinely fashioned for a time like this, for this moment in the history of their nation, when they could together guide us into a new future.
The First Couple opens the door into their private world, and it showcases the character of the leader in whose hands our nation looks for direction and guidance in this troubled hour.
His philosophy is simple: he believes in togetherness, humility and keeping the world in perspective. For example, they don’t believe they are living a dream life. Rather, as the First Lady said, “this is reality.” Their role as First Couple, he as President, her as his support, supplying her compassion and simple humanity and warm heart to him as he makes profound choices and decisions, her nursing of his ability to meet the challenges of wresting our nation to a healthy socio-political space, promises to deliver our nation to a healthy social space.
They noted that most of their lives they always lived contented, surviving on small salaries – even now seeing his Presidential pay as more than enough – but this prepared them for a life of thankfulness rather than one of celebrating their achievements.
With three grown children, all professionals, and looking forward to grandchildren, with their service at State House and the Office of the President, the First Couple comes across as engaging, friendly and familiar, full of laughter and pleasantries. Guyanese who get to know them cannot help but love them.
In fact, after 40 years of marriage, the two remain very much in love with each other, they both said.
The ideas they believe in, their personal philosophies, seem ripe for the times: togetherness, humility, simplicity of service. They absolutely believe in that idea of togetherness, with the President highlighting the word umpteen times after the First Lady raised it.
Encountering them is a pleasant experience in itself, hearing them talk of their years in the then Czeckoslovakia, their early years bringing up the kids, their building of a successful domestic life and political career and nursing lifestyle, and such a conversation leaves one with the sense that below the surface the President and First Lady are strong, courageous, confident and secured. They know how to overcome. They refuse to allow obstacles and challenges to keep them down. They are winners, and winners who come off their podium to walk and talk among mere mortals, always conscious and considerate that they are blessed, not because of their own efforts, but because of the mysteries of fate and the vagaries of destiny.
They rose to lead the Guyanese nation in this 21st century, to chart us into a future of togetherness and consideration for each other and into that realm of national achievement that we see in their domestic life.
The President’s courage, resolve, inner steel, heart of warm love for this nation, that’s the kind of man the First Lady revealed President Ramotar to be.
That’s the man who leads the Guyanese nation today, who is our President, the man of the moment for a Guyana of togetherness and overcoming strength.

(By Shaun Michael Samaroo)