Moses Nagamootoo commits blasphemy
–    by lying on the Father of the Nation
The PPP is a juggernaut that is energized by the power of the people, and that is why Nagamootoo’s defection is of minimal concern to the party. So said party stalwart Clement Rohee who, like Nagamootoo and other senior members of the PPP, had been moulded and guided from youthful days by the iconic Jagans. However, Moses Nagamootoo thought he would have been anointed successor to Dr. Jagan as Head-of-State.  It is believed that he pursued a law degree, not to pursue a profession, but to qualify himself for the position of the highest executive in the land.
His hopes were dashed, however, when Bharrat Jagdeo was appointed by Mrs. Jagan as her successor.
Moses Nagamootoo was always a favourite of the Jagans, and he was one of the first of the PPP-ites to be given a ministerial position.  At a press conference held at Freedom House Clement Rohee said that, as they struggled with the Jagans to restore democracy in the land, ministerial positions and power were the least considerations in any party member’s mind, because they had no expectations to be elevated to such high offices.
However, according to Rohee, Nagamootoo always had illusions of grandeur, which frustrated Dr. Jagan because, while he was Information Minister, rather than promoting the Government’s policies and publicising the works being undertaken to rebuild the country, Nagamootoo was hyping himself to the public.
Rohee contended that Nagamootoo had defected from the party in spirit long ago, ever since Bharrat Jagdeo had been named Head-of-State instead of the former; and he (Rohee) quoted from various publications in which Nagamootoo had voiced his dissatisfaction over many years because he claimed that “Dr. Jagan had chosen me as his successor.”
Nagamootoo has since then, according to Rohee, been lobbying with party supporters and delegates to support his aspirations as a presidential candidate; even and until this last nomination for a PPP/C presidential candidate.
Nagamootoo has opportunistically kept his feet in both camps, according to Rohee, because while he was lobbying for leadership position in the PPP, he was also simultaneously endorsing Khemraj Ramjattan and a third force.

QUOTE: All the criticisms that Nagamootoo is now leveling against the party and its incumbent President cannot negate the fact that the leadership provided during the past years of PPP/C administration in this country has driven this nation’s development on an upward trajectory that has wrested Guyana out of the jaws of absolute poverty and hopelessness that it had inherited in 1992 to an elevation where it is poised to compete with first-world nations for its development paradigm.

Rohee said the party tolerated Nagamootoo’s antics; recognizing that in every family or human construct there would always be dissatisfaction, but he contended that Nagamootoo is betraying Cheddi Jagan’s legacy because he has continuously attempted to destroy the cohesiveness within Cheddi Jagan’s party.
President Jagdeo has said that Nagamootoo is suffering from the “sour grapes” syndrome, and that the latter lied on Dr. Jagan by saying that Dr. Jagan told him in the Rupununi that he (Nagamootoo) would succeed the good doctor as Head-of-State, which everyone who knew Dr. Jagan would know to be an untruth, because Dr. Jagan built his party on consensual positions; and consultation with the body politic on important issues was supreme party policy.

QUOTE: That Nagamootoo was never considered as presidential material after he was tested and found wanting in a ministerial position, is a given – something his predilection for glory-seeking found extremely unpalatable, hence his egoistic declarations that the PPP would fail without him, when in effect he has been deadwood in that party for many years, out of choice, because he refused to contribute unless his fulminations on national policies were given prominence.

That Nagamootoo was lobbying to become President, and his subsequent bitterness against the party was as a result of his being overlooked for that leadership position was evident when his brother, Keeran Nagamootoo, said that his brother was supposed to be the first choice for the presidential candidate, because he was a senior member who served the party since Cheddi Jagan’s time. This indicates that all Nagamootoo’s relatives expected him to be elevated to the highest office in the land because of his standing in the party, forgetting that many others served in Cheddi Jagan’s time, and they have not fought to become President.
Those who expressed an interest – such as Gail Teixeira, Ralph Ramkarran, and Clement Rohee, were the ones who are upholding Cheddi Jagan’s legacy, because they bowed to the greater good of the party and the nation.
They are all eminently qualified, as Donald Ramotar is, but there can only be one Presidential Candidate within the PPP/C construct and the other contenders allowed good sense and the spirit of Cheddi Jagan to prevail in cohesive and compromising approaches to conflict-resolution, which has always hallmarked the Jaganite leadership.
This is what broke the camel’s back – or rather, was the deciding factor for Nagamootoo’s leaving the PPP/C because, now that President Jagdeo has signed himself out of the presidency, he felt that he commanded enough support to force himself into being elected presidential candidate of the party.
But party leaders knew the character who was always bombastic, egoistic, and who has always arrogated to himself the “right as successor to the presidency”, as if this position is a prize that he has won in some championship competition, which he considers he has won by right of longevity of association with the Jagans and the party.
His brother contended that Dr. Jagan had said at two political meetings that Nagamootoo should be president, and that Nagamootoo was treated unfairly during the last nominations also, because, “…For this election, instead of electing a candidate, they selected one, which was not fair to him (Nagamootoo).”  However, there is no record of Dr. Jagan ever making such a declaration or promise.
The brother went on to say that “when they had the last central committee meeting to elect a presidential candidate he had the most votes, but he went to study and Bharrat Jagdeo served as President” intimating that Bharrat Jagdeo became President by default because of Nagamootoo’s absence due to studies abroad.  It seems that the entire family of the Nagamootoos is suffering from delusions of grandeur.
His own daughter admitted in a letter to the media that her father left the PPP because he was not considered for high office.  She affirmed that her father was offered ambassadorial posting to Ottawa – one of the most prestigious foreign service postings, but he refused it because, for him, it was all or nothing; so the party leadership, fed up with his aggression and self-promotion, did indeed sideline his grand pretensions; hence his “sour grapes” actions.
So there it is, his own rela
tives are revealing the real reason for his defection from Cheddi Jagan’s party because, according to Keeran Nagamootoo, “Being a minister of government, he should have been given a chance to be president.”
President Jagdeo had also stressed that if Nagamootoo believed all those negative things he is saying about the party is true, then why was he lobbying so strongly to become leader of such a party.
As Rohee had pointed out during his press conference, Nagamootoo has always been fickle in his political life, positions and public utterances; and this does not lend itself to the quality of cohesion that is necessary for a leadership construct; and certainly not to the elements that create solid and strong leadership.
All the criticisms that he is now levelling against the party and its incumbent President cannot negate the fact that the leadership provided during the past years of PPP/C administration in this country has driven this nation’s development on an upward trajectory that has wrested Guyana out of the jaws of absolute poverty and hopelessness that it had inherited in 1992, to an elevation where it is poised to compete with first-world nations for its development paradigm.
Also the strong, solid leadership that primarily Presidents Jagan and Jagdeo have provided – together and individually, has catalysed Guyana on the world scenario as a force to be reckoned with – in major areas, where Guyanese, irrespective of creed, ethnic evaluations, or religion can stride with pride and dignity, instead of being viewed as pathetic citizens of a country ranked below Haiti as the poorest nation in the world.
Can either Khemraj Ramjattan or Moses Nagamootoo ever produce such quality of leadership?
Moses Nagamootoo committed the worst blasphemy when he lied on the Father of the Nation, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, because when Dr. Jagan recognized that he might be forced to bow to his mortality and – although his spirit battled to the very end, concede the welfare and the future of his adored Guyana and his most-beloved Guyanese people, he ensured that this nation’s future was placed into the hands of the one he had groomed to be his real successor via a letter and directions that he gave to his most trusted companion, his wife and fellow patriot Janet Jagan, trusting her to carry out his last wishes, of which she was au fait.  A copy of that letter can be seen in Nadira Jagan-Brancier’s tribute to her iconic parents: “My Father’s Fight for Guyana’s Freedom.” Those who know Dr. Jagan’s handwriting will immediately recognize the veracity of that document.
Dr. Jagan had meticulously planned the transitory stages of Bharrat Jagdeo’s eventual succession to the presidency of the country, because the latter was the repository of the dying President’s plans and programmes for this nation.
It was the young Bharrat Jagdeo who had travelled with Dr. Jagan to international financing fora in urgent efforts to reduce and/or alleviate in one way or another Guyana’s crippling debt burden that was stymieing this nation’s growth and development.
It was Bharrat Jagdeo who had combined Dr. Jagan’s vision and his projections into formulating a National Development Strategy and a Poverty Reduction Strategy, which have been adopted and adapted by other countries via the UN.
Dr. Cheddi Jagan had recognized in the young, self-effacing Bharrat Jagdeo a strong patriotism, an honest and solid character, a similar intent of purpose on developmental and poverty-reduction issues, and a like-minded passion for promoting unity in the nation; as well as unsurpassing brilliance almost rivalling that of himself, and this was the ultimate trust he reposed in his wife and fellow freedom-fighter, Janet.
Both of the iconic Jagans had known intimately the leadership potential of the various members of the party that they had founded in 1950.  They were also quite aware of the capacities and the capabilities of the leadership elite of the PPP, and the urgent needs of the country at that particular point in its developmental transition – and that is why Bharrat Jagdeo was chosen as successor to the presidency of Guyana and Donald Ramotar was chosen as successor to the leadership of the PPP – the country and the party that the Jagans were passionately devoted to.
So it is a natural progression – as formulated by Dr. Cheddi and Mrs. Janet Jagan, for Donald Ramotar to succeed Bharrat Jagdeo to lead the country after the latter demits office to ensure continuity of progressive endeavours that the PPP/C governmental construct has initiated and propelled – not least re-uniting the nation in the spirit of 1953, which was the Father of the Nation’s undying dream.
Everyone knows what a perfect couple the Jagans were, and how passionately loyal they were to each other; thus it is reasonable to assume that Mrs. Jagan would have been privy to Dr. Jagan’s desire (if such was the case) for Moses Nagamootoo to ever become President of the country.
However, those on the inside knew how frustrated and bitterly disappointed the Jagan’s were over Nagamootoo’s pretensions and self-glorification at the expense of the Government and the party; and they envisioned the catastrophe that would have been visited upon their beloved Guyanese people were they to unleash such a person with unlimited powers in the country.  The mere fact that the leadership of the party chose Bharrat Jagdeo to succeed Mrs. Jagan speaks volumes, because then Mrs. Jagan was still the matriarchal figure who, while not imposing her will, was honoured as the voice of the founding father of the PPP, and the leadership caucus respected her guidance and adhered to party principles on consensual positions on major issues.
That Nagamootoo was never considered as presidential material after he was tested and found wanting in a ministerial position, is a given – something his predilection for glory-seeking found extremely unpalatable, hence his egoistic declarations that the PPP would fail without him, when in effect he had been deadwood in that party for many years, out of choice, because he refused to contribute unless his fulminations on national policies were given prominence.
Donald Ramotar summed it up by describing him as of the ‘nagas’ family – the snake family:  And such reference is a clear description of betrayal, because snakes are known for their forked tongues and their venomous attacks.