Moses Nagamootoo is assured his name will be inscribed in the history annals. But he definitely will hate what history will say about him. The freedom fighter, the champion of the poor caper that he draped himself with over many years with Cheddi Jagan and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has morphed into a sad caricature of a person shamed, disgraced and laughed at, even in his own home village. In communities that are strongholds of the People’s National Congress, he is nothing but a political prop, a pawn, a sucker who betrayed his people for a title and the perks it carries. They laugh at him, behind his back. In the communities that still revere Cheddi Jagan’s ‘Freedom Brigade’, Nagamootoo is now reviled, seen as a snake in Vaseline.
As a little boy, I heard Cheddi at the corner of Albion Bridge humbly and confidently stating that history will reveal the truth and will absolve him. History has been good to Cheddi, anointing him as an anchor of hope. Cheddi, a genuine national hero, is remembered as a beacon of grace, dignity and courage, even his detractors say so. Unlike Cheddi, history will not be generous to Nagamootoo.
The hurricane of history will mock, belittle and revile Nagamootoo. History will paint Nagamootoo as a consummate con-artist who used his tricks and deceit to gain the trust of his people, as a narcissist, man obsessed with pomposity, self-centeredness, egotism. Far from remembering him as a freedom fighter and champion of the poor, history will nail him as a tragicomic bit player, used by people to reintroduce dictatorship and extinguish the flames of hope for people in our country. Far from being a name proudly used as a rallying cry, it will be punchline for treachery and betrayal, much like the way Judas is used.
While beating his chest in India “pompositing” himself as a Prime Minister (PM) at a Tamil Convention, his audience was unaware that Nagamootoo no longer has time for people worried about the next meal for their family. These people include sugar workers who have lost their jobs, begging for their severance; rice farmers who have lost their leases and those who sell paddy at prices below cost of production; Amerindians not getting titles; miners intimidated; people worried about tolls, higher property taxes; domestic and sexual violence; spiraling crime; bloating the underbelly of corruption. Nagamootoo now has no ears to hear, eyes to see, mouth to talk, or heart to be compassionate. He has no time for these people. He is silent and hides from them.
Nagamootoo held a Local Government Elections (LGE) AFC meeting at Auchlyne, a village within walking distance from his family home in Whim. The response had a clue for what history has in store for him. A group of protesters confronted him, including many sugar workers who he once claimed he was their champion. The protesters outnumbered those who were in the tents in the school yard. Those in the tents included parents who thought it was a school event, not a political meeting, and Alliance For Change (AFC) candidates from different parts of the country there to ensure the PM had an audience. Simultaneously, in Nagamootoo’s home village, people were treating Bharrat Jagdeo and PPP local leaders with adulation.
The demise and fall of Nagamootoo and the AFC are amply underlined by the Auchlyne meeting. Nagamootoo did not advertise the event as an AFC political meeting, fearing no one will come, other than bussed-in AFC candidates. He advertised it, instead, as the PM talking about local issues. The event was totally paid for by taxpayers, including expensive, colouful flyers that were sent with the children to invite their parents. The flyers were in the APNU and AFC colours. They descended into trickery and deceit in order to even host a small LGE meeting.
The AFC had to use trickery and deceit to even post a list for LGE 2018 in his village. In investigating fraud and deceit, as ordered by a Judge, the Police could not find any of the local AFC leaders; all Nagamootoo’s relatives. Why were they hiding in the midst of the LGE campaign? Why and how could Nagamootoo, with his power and State resources, fail to persuade enough of his villagers to stand with him in the AFC to at least make him look good in his own village? My historical perspective aside, let Moses’ villagers warn him of what history has in store for him. The nice house, the siren-blazing convoys, his globetrotting and his pompous charades around the country are not worth the historical belittling that is in store for Moses. History absolved Cheddi. History will wreck Nagamootoo.
