“I’m not the PPP’s problem” -Ramkarran

“I’m not the PPP’s problem”   -Ramkarran

Former Executive member of the People’s Progressive Party, Senior Counsel Ralph Ramkarran is firing back at the executives of the party over a statement released by the party which sought to portray him as being bitter over his failed efforts to be chosen as the party’s Presidential Candidate on a number of occasions.

In a letter to the press on Tuesday, the former Speaker of the National Assembly declared that he is not the PPP’s problem and the party needs to look at its leadership which he believes is “destroying the PPP and tarnishing its great image.”

“I am not the PPP’s problem. I am only the messenger. Since the PPP chooses to attack the messenger, rather than deal with the message, all the Guyanese electorate can look forward to in the future is more of the political chaos that now prevails”,  Ramkarran said in his letter.

Mr. Ramkarran once again raised the issue of corruption and how it may be affecting the party. He said the post Cheddi Jagan PPP “does not now have, nor has ever had, any intention of dealing with corruption either in its ranks or anywhere else”

He said the party has become one that has serious leadership issues and problems with tolerance. “The leadership cabal ensured that the issue of corruption was taken off the Party’s agenda. In response to the growing cancer of corruption and public criticism, the PPP established an Anti-Corruption Committee shortly after the 2001 elections,  led by Mrs Janet Jagan. Its first act was to investigate an allegation of corruption against a senior Party organizer. He was found guilty”, he noted.

According to the former party executive, the General Secretary, Mr Donald Ramotar who is now the President, “adamantly refused to dismiss him or to take any other disciplinary steps against him. Mrs Jagan refused to convene the Anti-Corruption Committee again until disciplinary steps were taken against the organiser”.

He said disciplinary steps were never taken against the official found guilty of being involved in corrupt practices. He also noted that the anti corruption committee of the part never met again and the official who was fingered in the corruption allegations has since been promoted.

Ramkarran has been using his blog (conversationtree.gy) to highlight a number of problems in the country and he has been paying keen attention to the party he served for decades. The PPP has dismissed his concerns and statements, pointing to his presidential ambitions that never became reality.

Mr. Ramkarran in his letter said the party needs to address the problems of its leadership. The current leadership style he believes, “has driven and is driving many comrades away in circumstances which are deeply painful”.

Thee former Speaker said instead of sharing responsibility for governance with the Opposition, the PPP is handing the country over in its entirety to the Opposition on a platter.

He believes the party “should consider steps which will bring back those comrades, retrieve its stature of the past and the respect and esteem in which it has once been held by people everywhere”. He said a failure to do such could see the party losing its time in office.

 

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