Dear Editor,
The emasculation of Khemraj Ramjattan on the January 3 launch of the Granger re-election campaign was painful to watch; no one, friend or foe should ever have to go through such humiliation on a public stage.
On the eve of Christmas, as the coalition partners met to celebrate the clandestine sale of three million barrels of oil at State House, a new accord between Granger’s APNU and Ramjattan’s AFC was spontaneously announced.
Many expected that the question of Granger’s choice of prime ministerial candidate and running mate was finally settled. It now appears that the question still hangs and there is a real possibility another candidate has caught the imagination of Mr Granger.
APNU/AFC imitated the PPP approach of a multi-ethnic ticket for elections; but upon election to office in 2015, Moses Nagamootoo, who was/is the Prime Minister of that coalition Government, was gradually reduced to ribbon-cutting and used as an Indo-mannequin in the social cohesion dress window.
The moniker of ‘rubber stamp’ was coined by a local wag and resonated to the point where the phrase was used by a Judge in the Caribbean Court of Justice during the No-Confidence Motion hearings. Given that both Nagamootoo and Ramjattan are Indo-Guyanese and both have been forced to prostrate themselves before David Granger, can we conclude that this is Granger’s view of how the race should be treated? Reduced to begging him for sustenance and approval? Was the US assessment in 1974 spot on?
For among the Wikileaks releases was a US diplomatic cable of June 27, 1974, that said David Granger had a history of being an “anti-East Indian racist”. When you add that to the foregoing facts on the treatment being meted out to Nagamootoo and Ramjattan and the callous disregard shown for the seven thousand sugar workers thrown unceremoniously onto the bread line and the fact that the worker of the Wales estate had to approach the courts to be paid severance guaranteed by the laws of Guyana, you may get the true measure of the hateful nature of this man who wants to be re-elected.
The conclusion that the American diplomats got it right back then is inescapable; It is only left for Granger to bellow “back to back, belly to belly, I don’t give a dam, I done dead already” for his transformation into an intellectually-lightweight version of the ‘Kabaka’ he so idolises to be complete.
As I watched the evisceration of Ramjattan as the campaign launch wore on and no indication that he had attained his goal of prime ministerial candidate, the clichéd “you lie down with dags (sic) you get up with fleas” came to mind and I resolved to unmask this macabre game of ‘tokens’ being played by Granger. It is distasteful, disrespectful and demeaning to all Guyanese. I also resolved to redouble my efforts in support of the genuine multi-ethnic team assembled by the PPP/C in the upcoming elections.
The PPP/C campaign theme “Stronger together” was chosen with care and good reason. It is an acknowledgement of our multi-cultural society; a milepost on the road to becoming one people with many pigmentation levels, a smorgasbord of people, all with one love; our dear land of Guyana.
Respectfully,
Robin Singh
