CUFFY WOULD APPEAL TO THE HISTORIC RECORD OF THE PPP, IF HE WERE ALIVE TODAY

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 3rd August 2013, 5:00 pm

By the time this article is published the Emancipation Day commemoration of the 175th Anniversary of the abolition of slavery would have passed. This year also marks the 250th anniversary of the 1763 Slave Rebellion and the 190th anniversary of the 1823 Demerara Slave Rebellion. The 1763 and 1823 Slave Rebellions, along with economic factors, culminated eventually in the abolition of slavery in 1838, and are among the most cataclysmic events which have shaped the history and consciousness of the Guyanese people, in particular African Guyanese. This opportunity is taken to pay tribute to the heroes of these momentous struggles, to reflect on the example they left for us to follow and to thank the African Guyanese people and others who have kept alive their memory. Before it was fashionable, the old PPP began to recognize our heroes and named its party school after Accabre.

This must be a time for all Guyanese to reflect on the enduring passion which has always existed for human liberty and human dignity amidst the most degrading and terrifying brutality imaginable. 1763 and 1823 demonstrated this to us on a large scale. But our history is replete with individual and group acts of courage in the face of certain death such that we today cannot even begin to comprehend. Our ancestors fought for their own, not our survival, but we survived because they fought.  African Guyanese are justly proud of the struggle of their ancestors for our freedom and for their achievements today although much more remains to be done.

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THE DAY I RESIGNED FROM THE PPP.

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 27th July 2013, 7:00 pm

It was a Saturday morning, June 30, 2011, just over a year ago. I had gone to bed the night before at 7.30 pm, never so early as far as I remember. I opened one of the partially read books at my bedside but could barely concentrate. My wife, Janet, joined me at 9 pm, said nothing, went under the sheets and pretended to go to sleep. But I knew that sleep would not come to her as long as I was awake and in distress. I knew that during the night she would awaken about every hour and check if I was breathing. I turned off my night light at about 11 pm. She turned around, embraced me and I fell asleep.

I had come home unusually early the afternoon before from the Party Executive meeting. When I was about to leave home at midday for the meeting, Janet pleaded with me, as she often did in recent years, not to lose my temper. I had been on a short fuse for quite a while because of the increasing attacks to which I had been subjected at these meetings. Janet felt that an article I had recently written in which I said that there was pervasive corruption in Guyana might elicit some hostile comments. She feared that I might be tempted to respond.

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THE PPP HAS GROWN TIRED.

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Monday, 22nd July 2013, 8:30 pm

The long anticipated statement by the PPP in response to what I have
been writing is a disappointment. Instead of dealing with the issues
which I have highlighted, which are of great concern to the people of
Guyana and members and supporters of the PPP, it has chosen the well
worn path of personal abuse. The leadership of the PPP has lost its
will, its creative and dynamic impulses and the capacity of
constructive discourse. It is suffering from incumbency fatigue. It
has grown tired.

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.

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A CONSENSUAL MECHANISM

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 20th July 2013, 7:00 pm

The Report of the Constitutional Reform Commission (CRC) dated July 17, 1997, recommended at clause 9.9.3.4. that the Chancellor and Chief Justice should be appointed through a ‘consensual mechanism.’ Both the Independence and the Burnham Constitutions had provided that for certain appointments, including the Chancellor (after the Court of Appeal and the post of Chancellor was created in 1970) and Chief Justice, the Head of Government must ‘consult’ with the Leader of the Opposition. As everyone knows, these ‘consultations’ became a perfunctory farce during Burnham’s time in office but was somewhat mitigated during Hoyte’s tenure.

By the time the CRC was deliberating in 1999, the situation in relation to consultation had changed. The PPP/C had been in Government since 1992, and had begun to observe the provisions of the Constitution relating to consultation with the Opposition. However, during the deliberations in the CRC, members felt that in order to prevent a situation such as existed during the PNC’s terms of office from recurring, it was necessary to strengthen the language, and thereby the practice, about consultation. Thus wherever consultation was provided for in the Constitution, the word ‘meaningful’ was added so that the requirement became ‘meaningful consultation.’

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SN + KN + MN + RR + KR = 0

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 13th July 2013, 7:12 pm

While the local television news was being read during last week, my attention was attracted to the announcement by the interviewee at a press conference to pay attention to the ‘algebraic’ equation about to be announced. The journalists were cautioned that they might not understand if they did not listen carefully. I listened and was baffled.

A few days after I was engaged in a court trial in which Messrs Khemraj Ramjattan and Nigel Hughes were on the opposite side. Moses Nagamootoo, while waiting his matter in another Court, came in to listen to the proceedings, as lawyers often do. During a pause I asked if they understood the ‘algebraic’ equation. They were all in  deep bafflement.

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The Conversation Tree is both physical and philosophical. The physical is the tree itself, which has given its name to the road from which it originates at the intersection of the Rupert Craig Highway. It was reputedly first planted by Napleton William King in 1876 to celebrate the birth of his son Napleton Walter. As...
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