Ramjattan is in cognitive decline
THE National Conference of the AFC is the same event other parties refer to as their “Party Congress.” That event took place over this past weekend.
On the Freddie Kissoon show of last Wednesday, I predicted a win for Sherod Duncan. In my own defence for the mal-prediction is that the programme was taped on Monday and at that time the campaign of Nigel Hughes had not gained momentum and the pendulum was clearly in Duncan’s favour. By the time the programme was streamed, radical events had overtaken proceedings that would belie my predictions.
My predictions were informed by a series of serpentine actions taken by Duncan who was supported by a small group of virulent individuals who have a bloated sense of their own selves and possessed delusions of grandeur given fodder by Ramjattan. Their sojourn conjures memories of the 1975 movie titled “The Apple Dumpling Gang” in which three mischievous orphans were cared for by a gullible self-delusional character.
For the last six years or so, Ramjattan was given a blank cheque to run the party after his own order. Ramjattan was unchallenged due mainly to the comatose state of Nagamootoo and the ill health of Trotman. For a great portion of this time, Ramjattan was aided by Cathy Hughes and David Patterson. However, Ramjattan’s licence to operate took him in directions that were undesirable to the old guards.
Under Ramjattan’s leadership, most regional groups became dormant, no legitimate elections for regional leaders were held for more than six years. Party insiders indicated that Ramjattan provided significant funding to ensure Duncan get to the outer regions to create a semblance of party regional activities.
So, instead of performing his real functions as General Secretary, he went about the regions installing Ramjattan-faithfuls to lead interim management committees. The attempt to get Sherod into the leader’s slot was being engineered by Ramjattan for about a year. This is the reason why Duncan out nominated Patterson and Hughes. In fact, Hughes was thrown in at last minute as a wild card. His nominations came from otherwise defunct chapters in the Caribbean and UK.
There was a big disagreement over the validity of Hughes’ nomination, in that, Duncan as GS in a suicidal move laced with stupidity, argued in favour of his own failure as GS to revive these groups and at least establish IMCs. As GS, he didn’t find it embarrassing to have pronounced these groups dead under his tenure. His stupidity extended into a lack of appreciation for the fact that only a successful motion at a National Executive meeting can kill or establish chapters, so the last elected leader still in financial compliance remains the leader until another legitimate election or otherwise dissolved by the NEC. This was the main reason behind the profanity laced voice notes, heard around the world, threatening to physically harm Duncan if he said anything further to someone named Dianna. It is believed that Dianna, who volunteers as an office clerk and was assigned clerical tasks for the nominations process received and included the two diaspora nominations, to the ire of Duncan.
Ramjattan’s Apple Dumpling Gang included and was exclusively made up of comedic malevolent opportunistic political simpletons. The fact that Ramjattan thought that he can turn over the party exclusively to this group is proof that he is in severe cognitive decline. From all indications, Ramjattan’s gang was set to take over, given the engineering of the IMCs and the lavish funding.
Faced with this grim possibility, the old guard woke up, albeit at last minute. David Patterson was not likely to defeat Duncan because many AFC members are still bitter with those who held ministerial portfolios. The general feeling is that they fortified themselves and largely ignored the needs of the membership, so, Patterson was likely to experience a revolt. The insertion of Nigel Hughes changed the game. Hughes was supported by Trotman who was able to activate his sleeper cells that were dormant because they were taking cue that suggested that Ramjattan has a free reign. Once someone who is considered an original core leader, known nationally and did not serve as a minister under Granger threw their hat into the ring and was willing to match Ramjattan’s budget and pull out all stops through nationwide campaigning, Ramjattan’s Apple Dumpling Gang was history.
It was a middleclass revolt. AFC was built on middleclass instincts and consciousness; they were not about to turn their party leadership over to a loud mouthed, bell ringing, donation begging, wild talking, corny comedian not firmly planted in the middleclass.
The history of the AFC is one that is always marked by major hesitancy to promote persons to meaningful leadership positions despite their talents. It was no surprise that there was a major revolt against Ramjattan, his blank cheque now stands cancelled. What would be Nigel’s influence on the electorate? We will delve into that later.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
