FORMER President Ramotar is not the Leader of the Opposition. He is not even a member of parliament. I am sure had he indicated his willingness to go to Parliament, he would have been accommodated. But it would be humiliating for an ex-president to go to Parliament under another leader.
There is no precedent in Guyana for that. Since the Sam Hinds scenario was a political manoeuvre, it is not counted.
I never thought that Donald Ramotar was suited for the Presidency. Although the President is supposed to be the President for all of Guyana, in our political culture he or she is first and foremost the standard bearer for the party in the Government and state. In that regard, the President has to enjoy legitimacy within his party largely because in our divided polity, achieving legitimacy in the country as a whole is quite difficult. I would argue that none of our Heads of State and Government has come close to achieving cross-ethnic legitimacy.
Although he came through the ranks of the PPP, I don’t think he was ever likely to be embraced as the top man. He lacked the flair, audacity and political nimbleness that the rank and file has come to expect from the leader. He also was not politically ambitious and confrontational as his predecessor. Ramotar was the compromise leader who was given the job by the leadership in order to keep out others such as Ralph Ramkarran and Moses Nagamootoo. The larger constituency had no formal input in his selection. And unfortunately for him, the Jagans were not around to anoint him.
So his was always going to be a difficult presidency. He lacked legitimacy in both the party and the country. Worse, while he inherited the baggage of the Jagdeo presidency, the successes of Jagdeo in constructing an Indian Guyanese elite and radicalising important sections of the PPP constituency were not transferred to him. Such things are not easily transferable as they are usually created in the image of the architect.
Ramotar also became the first PPP leader who presided over the loss of the Parliamentary majority. That would forever be a noose around his neck. He had created history in the wrong way. Although it was not his fault, he was left with carrying the shame. The Indian Guyanese rebellion at the 2011 election was the consequence of the alienation of the PPP rank and file by the Jagdeo regime. While Jagdeo expanded the Indian Guyanese elite and inspired a new cadre of young upstarts, the price was the alienation of other sections of the Indian Guyanese working classes. It is this section that Nagamootoo was able to take to the AFC in 2011.
In addition to the above, Ramotar had to confront a three-headed Opposition—the newly formed APNU alliance led by the PNC, the WPA and the new group of ex-soldiers; the AFC whose base lay in his party’s constituency and a radical group of street activists. So while Mr. Granger was not a radical Opposition leader and was disposed to dialogue with the PPP, his caution was counter-balanced by the more aggressive AFC and the even more strident street activists.
In the circumstances, Donald Ramotar was in a no-win situation. The one weapon he had at his disposal was to use the Presidency to go above the party and strike a deal with the Opposition in the form of a Government of National Unity with him as President. David Granger, from all indications, was open to that deal. But Ramotar lacked the vision and political will to do so. It is the difference between him and Robert Corbin. Faced with the same problem in the PNC, Robert Corbin went above his party’s head and fashioned a Partnership that became the launching pad for his party’s return to Government. In the end, Ramotar lost the entire Government and became an easy target for his more ambitious colleagues who turned to Jagdeo to pull the party back.
(Dr. David Hinds, a political activist and commentator, is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Caribbean and African Diaspora Studies at Arizona State University. More of his writings and commentaries can be found on his YouTube Channel Hinds’ Sight: Dr. David Hinds’ Guyana-Caribbean Politics and on his website www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com. Send comments to dhinds6106@aol.com)
