IN my Wednesday, September 9 column, I mentioned that I was asked by someone whose views I respect if I haven’t been too harsh on Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan, in that their five years of power was hamstrung by the snub the Mulatto/ Creole class (MCC) leadership in the Alliance For Change (AFC) showed them.
Yes, I agree that the MCC had little tolerance for Nagamootoo and Ramjattan because they were seen as quintessential Indian politicians and not the type the MCC wanted to be in the hierarchy of the AFC. When the APNU+AFC won power, Raphael Trotman revealed at a 2016 local government election public meeting in Bartica that David Granger had called him on the phone and said, “Raphael, this is Nassau.”
Nassau refers to a casual encounter between Granger and Trotman at the airport in the Bahamas. Granger threw up the idea that there needs to be a middle-class party to function independently of the PNC. He argued that the PNC will bring in its traditional voters, while the third party secures middle-class multi-racial support.
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Granger via a middle class, multi-racial third party had in mind Indians that were Christian middle class. Names like Rupert Ropnaraine and Christopher Ram came up. Roopnaraine was not interested since for mysterious reasons he was more focus on the PNC after Corbin’s exit. Ram accepted to be part of the AFC. The AFC was born in Ram’s office.
Ramjattan was not on the mind of the MCC to be part of the AFC. Most of the big names in the MCC who formed the leadership of the AFC did not want Ramjattan in the AFC because he was dark-skinned and a devout Hindu. It was Trotman who argued that the AFC needed Ramjattan because the PNC votes and the middle-class votes were not sufficient. Trotman and Ramjattan had a bitter falling out when Trotman felt that Ramjattan did not know his place. Ramjattan wanted to be the AFC’s presidential candidate in 2011. Trotman was incensed.
Ramjattan knew he had a major card to play to keep the MCC at bay. He secured substantial Indian funding and brought in working-class Indian folk into the party. He was instrumental in getting Nagamootoo to come over. From thereon, there was an uneasy relationship between Nagamootoo and Ramjattan on the one hand and the MCC folk in the AFC on the other hand.
By 2014, the AFC looked nothing like the AFC that was formed in 2005. Its Indian component was extensive, with Nagamootoo instrumental in bringing Berbice Indians on board.
Factually, the MCC personalities did not allow Nagamootoo and Ramjattan much leeway. In fact, the MCC literally sidelined the Indian component of the AFC, the first victim being Dr. Ramaya, then Rajendra Bissesar, then Charrandass Persaud. The two persons in the room who were silent when the MCC selected Dr Racquel Thomas to be Minister of the Environment were Nagamootoo and Ramjattan. They didn’t know Dr Thomas.
While it is true that Nagamootoo and Ramjattan lived with the pressure the MCC put on them as ministers of government, this is just part of the story of Nagamootoo and Ramjattan in government. In 2005 and 2011, it was Nagamootoo and Ramjattan that secured the votes the AFC got.
In 2015, Nagamootoo and Ramjattan took the AFC into power. None of the MCC personalities brought in any substantial number of ballots. I spoke at 35 public meetings of the AFC in 2015, so I knew who brought in the votes for the AFC.
How could one forgive Nagamootoo and Ramjattan for remaining silent from pressure from 10th-rate politicians in the MCC in the AFC, when both Nagamootoo and Ramjattan went on a rampage when they were inside the PPP.
Ramjattan on several occasions confronted Dr Jagan and Janet Jagan but couldn’t open his mouth to put the 10th-rate politicians in the AFC that sidelined him and Nagamootoo in their places. All hell should have broken loose in 2016 in the government. Nagamootoo and Ramjattan should have read the Riot Act to the MCC and let them know that it was he and Nagamootoo who had put them where they were. Who knew and voted for Dominic Gaskin, Cathy Hughes, Noel Holder, David Patterson and Raphael Trotman in 2011 and 2015? The AFC voters in 2011 and 2015 gave their ballots to Nagamootoo and Ramjattan.
Both men should have given the MCC an ultimatum – we run the part of the government that the AFC controls or we break up the AFC. It was as simple as that. The WPA caused APNU to get into power in 2015, yet Granger treated Clive Thomas as if he were an underling. Ramjattan, Nagamootoo and Thomas failed and betrayed their country.
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.
