– at this juncture of Guyana’s history
When the PPP took office in 1992 there had been no blueprint for the newly-installed Government to build on.  The PNC, after finally recognizing that they could not forestall free-and-fair elections in 1992, after decades of rigging the elections in their favour, with the sanction and help of imperialist forces, went on a spree of vandalism, theft and destruction.  The records are there for the world to peruse. Documents were consumed in huge bonfires.  Government offices were denuded of everything, even the most basic items, including typewriters, furniture – everything.  The PPP/C inherited empty and destroyed government offices, with chaos everywhere, and a bankrupt nation of which the devastation countrywide would take volumes to chronicle.  The PNC’s recent presidential nominee and then Finance Minister, Carl Greenidge, had declared the country bankrupt with no recourse to salvaging the nation’s financial status during his last budget presentation.
Post October 5, 1992 elections, the newly-constructed PPP/C Cabinet could not have functioned effectively without the well-oiled machinery of the PPP construct working simultaneously in conjunctive efforts to salvage and reconstruct Guyana in efforts to halt its plunging spiral, ranked as lowest on socio-economic indices on international developmental rating graphs.
And as per democratic norms and leadership practices within that Party, the decisions taken are unanimous; so it was not merely a few men and women, competent and committed as that first PPP/C cabinet was, that drove and executed the massive restructuring of the national development paradigm, which sent it unerringly on an upward trajectory, but the entire PPP structure, without which the success of the governance of the nation would not have been possible – and Donald Ramotar was, and remains, integral to that process of national re-construction and growth.  Moreover, he has helmed the Party since the demise of its iconic founder-leader, Dr Jagan, with full support and cooperation with Party co-founder and matriarch, Mrs. Janet Jagan and the entire PPP construct.
Notably, he rejected a ministerial position to captain the Party through all the trying times that the fledgling government and its embryonic Party were subjected to by the opposition’s destructive stratagems over the years to wrest power in the land once more, not through the polls, but through its calls for insurgency and “slo’ fiah, mo fiah” in the land, which succeeded in robbing the PPP of two years of its legitimate presidential term in —- in a bid to halt the rioting and destruction in the country.
Despite this, the PPP Government and its parent Party have prevailed and Guyana is well on the way to achieving the peace, progress and prosperity that Dr. Cheddi dreamt of for this land and his people, and for which the PPP has unrelentingly striven; and Donald Ramotar has been integral to that process since the PPP/C assumed the presidential office in 1992. Hence, he has always served in an unofficial capacity as a presidential advisor.  Moreso, he has always served as an aider and abettor of government projects and programmes, because the PPP has never been and will never be indivisible from the PPP government, and the PPP government has only succeeded so well because of its all-inclusive nature, which has incorporated the inherited governmental human construct in public offices in its developmental initiatives and programmes.
This Party, so truly national in scope and in its operational methodologies, has propelled a supremely successful government for nearly two decades; and captaining that Party for the greater part of that duration has been the PPP presidential candidate, Donald Ramotar.  And even before accession to the executive office of the land the PPP has always been entitled to the presidency, because it has never yet lost a free-and-fair general election in this land; and Ramotar’s input and advice were integral to each successive PPP Manifesto, which has driven presidential and governmental decisions and policies.
Ramotar is a very well-liked personality, who transcends racial divides, because the ancestral heritage of this son of Sam Ramotar and Olive Constantine is a mixture of Amerindian, African, Indian and Portuguese ethnicities, and it is truly a rainbow of races when his family gets together; so when Donald Ramotar accedes to office in December of this year, the PPP/C would have given this country the first Amerindian President in the history of Guyana, because Donald Ramotar was greatly influenced by his Afro-Amerindian mother, and he spent his entire childhood and youth in the Amerindian community of Caria Caria, imbibing all their ways and a love for and knowledge of their culture, and it must be noted that, Amerindians count as their own anyone with tribal blood.
Fittingly also, in this year dedicated to African peoples, a Guyanese of African descent will be anointed President of the Republic of Guyana, because that racial strain, too, is a component of Ramotar’s peculiar ethnic cook-up, who was the pet during his boyhood of his African grandmother and his Amerindian grandfather in that community of mixed races.
But even more, all Guyanese would have cause to celebrate a Donald Ramotar Presidency, because he is not only a descendant of almost every racial strain in Guyana, he is a son of the soil who has, as incumbent President Bharrat Jagdeo has said, “been blooded in struggle” during the years that Guyanese had to fight for freedom in this country and is thus a true Guyanese patriot and freedom-fighter.
It is right that Ramotar becomes President of this country of diverse races at this juncture of Guyana’s history, when Guyanese are once again coming together in the spirit of oneness that created the People’s Progressive Party under the leadership of the iconic Dr. Cheddi Jagan.
That he has his finger on the pulse of Guyana’s developmental dynamics and can continue to guide the momentum of growth that accelerated under the brilliant leadership of President Jagdeo is apparent when he outlines his plans for continuing, and expanding on the growth poles that successive PPP Presidents have planted.
At the Kitty rally, Ramotar, always the pacifist and conciliator, while recognizing that much wrong has been done, over decades – until current times, to the PPP and the PPP/C administration, nonetheless offered an olive branch to the nemesis of his Party – the collective opposition, because that is the nature of the man, and of all PPP leaders to date, especially Dr. Cheddi Jagan, who always sought cohesiveness and unity in this country.
However, Ramotar has been “blooded in struggle” and has grown up in politics, witnessing at first hand the constant betrayals to the national cause and divisive ploys by successive power-hungry opposition leaders and international forces that have left the Guyanese people divided unto themselves and warned that, while he is prepared, like President Jagdeo in the Sharma affair, to compromise with stakeholders in the land and seek unanimity for the good of the nation, in the final analysis the people’s choice must be respected and he would brook no impediment to the nation’s development.
So even while seeking consensual positions – as the PPP has always done – especially through the restructured parliamentary configurations that allow opposition a say in national governance, the administration would, if this cannot be realized through the usual opposition negative behaviour and impossible demands, forge on with developmental imperatives regardless.
Hailed as Ram avatar (a pun on his name Ramotar – meaning an incarnation of Lord Ram) by speakers at various forums, including staunch Hindu Clinton Collymore, who said that, while he was acknowledging that Ramotar is not a manifestation of God, he is the next best thing – and Colly should know, because they have been brothers in struggle for decades.
In his delivery at Kitty, Ramotar said that, despite the naysayers – who condemn everything the government achieves, denying the progress in the country, the achievements in every aspect of life in Guyana is highly visible for those who are honest enough to admit that this government has delivered on its successive manifestos.
According to Ramotar, changing global demographics necessitate occasional changes to the PPP/C developmental plans for the nation, but one fundamental truth remains constant – and that is, the party’s love for the collective Guyanese people and its commitment to bring people together and develop the country as one nation with equitable socio-economic justice, which has always been the principal goal of the PPP, and he promised to also work tirelessly, along with members of the next Cabinet, to see that the country generates enough wealth for equitable distribution so that, in the not-too-distant future poverty would be totally eradicated in Guyana.
He lauded President Jagdeo’s brilliant leadership that has prepared a path for modernization of the developmental framework of Guyana, which he promised will accelerate many times over because of the way charted by the incumbent Head-of-State.
One of the primary changes that he said was a springboard to social enhancement and personal development is the government’s housing programme.
He outlined the many programmes already on the PPP/C developmental agenda for the immediate future and appealed to the electorate to vote wisely, although he has faith in the collective intelligence of the Guyanese people, whom he is certain have taken cognizance of the progress in the nation that has been achieved under the PPP/C administration, which stands out as a beacon of light.
He expressed his pride in belonging to a party that produced leaders who have fought every major fight to liberate and empower the people of this nation – a party that is rooted in serving people; and concluded by promising to continue to work hand-in-hand with all Guyanese who are willing to work hard for a better tomorrow for Guyana and all its people.