HERE are the words of Raphael Trotman in his recently published book, From Destiny to Prosperity: “After the (2015) elections, for reasons never fully explained to me, my name was not submitted for a ministerial position under the terms of the Cummingsburg Accord arrangements.”

Here are the words in a press statement by the Alliance For Change penned by Khemraj Ramjattan on March 11, 2017.
“The Alliance For Change joins APNU in refuting the assertion made by columnist, Freddie Kissoon, in the March 4, 2017 edition of the Kaieteur News with regards to ministerial appointments. Mr. Ramjattan consulted with the leadership of the AFC on all of the party’s ministerial appointments.”

If ever there were two statements that cannot be reconciled then they are what Trotman just published in 2023 and what Ramjattan wrote in 2017. Which one should we believe? That is an impossible task when you consider the politics of these two failed politicians, but because of who they were and what they did, the analysis is worth pursuing. But first, the background.

In December 2016, the AFC held its congress at Vreed-en-Hoop. Trotman challenged then leader, Ramjattan, for the leader position and won. In his first press conference as head of the AFC in February 2017 at the AFC’s head office on Railway Street, Kitty, Trotman told the media that after the 2015 election, three founders of the AFC were not selected as ministers – he, Dominic Gaskin, and Noel Holder.
In praise of the quality of President Granger’s leadership, Trotman said at the press conference that President Granger showed generosity by appointing him as Minister of Natural Resources, Gaskin as Business Minister and Holder was given the agriculture portfolio.

It was an explosive, nerve-shattering revelation that only two persons, I repeat, two persons in the media investigated – me and Leonard Gildarie. I wrote a column on Trotman’s disclosure and Gildarie interviewed Joe Harmon. It was in relation to my column that Ramjattan issued his March 2017 press statement. Please be informed, I have a recording of the Trotman press conference of February 2017 and at the time I announced I had it in 2017, trade unionist, Norris Witter requested a copy and I facilitated him.

As I wrote above, the positions of Trotman and Ramjattan cannot be reconciled. One is saying that he was surprised that he was left out for a ministerial position. The other is saying that as leader, he consulted the top brass of the AFC when ministerial positions were being chosen. Trotman at the time – May 2025 – was deputy leader. So now that Trotman’s book is out, who do you believe?
I don’t believe either of them, and have no interest in knowing which one is telling the truth. I consider Trotman and Ramjattan, two of the worst politicians I had the painful experience of knowing. I believe what I am about to write in the next line.

Here it is – Forbes Burnham was a billion times a more straightforward human that these two men. The only reason why I am doing this column is because it is my job to analyse things in my country in the hope it would achieve two goals – to contribute to Guyana’s historiography and to provide useful knowledge to Guyanese wherever they are.
Here now are my reasons for advising Guyanese not to pursue the curiosity in knowing which one is not truthful. I cannot see Trotman being the biggest name in the AFC even more than Ramjattan in 2015, and was the AFC’s campaign manager, and remained quiet when he was not made a minister.

This is the same Trotman that rose to his feet several times at countless meetings of the central executive of the PNC and confronted opposition leader, Desmond Hoyte.

Mr. Trotman was one of the most vocal, aggressive, argumentative voices in the PNC’s leadership and at one meeting requested Mr. Hoyte to resign as PNC leader. When Aubrey Norton writes his memoir, Guyana will learn much more of who Raphael Trotman was. Is this the gentleman we must believe that just quietly sat down and allowed the AFC to bypass him for a Cabinet portfolio?

As for Ramjattan, this nation should demand that Ramjattan leave this county and seek exile in Timbuktu. There is a tape available on the internet in which in July 2020, Ramjattan is bidding farewell to his staff at the Ministry of Home Affairs and conceded that APNU+AFC lost the March 2020 elections. His words were clear, pellucid and unambiguous. Yet up to this day, Ramjattan is denying that he said so even though the seven billion people in the world can listen to it.