Skip to main content

FM
Former Member
Donald Ramotar is a man of modest upbringing and a humble, down-to-earth nature … just like Dr. Cheddi Jagan

Written by Cheddi Berret Jagan II, Esq.
Monday, 07 November 2011 02:44

Dr. Cheddi Jagan

ANYONE intimately, or even cursorily, familiar with our nation’s founding father, our former President, and my grandfather, Dr. Cheddi Berret Jagan can effortlessly attest to his modest upbringing and humble, down-to-earth nature. To even begin refuting this point is an exercise in futility and quite simply; a fool’s errand.

Ask the Guyanese people and they will tell you that Dr. Jagan is their champion; being a man of his people, for his people and with his people.

Dr. Jagan was born and raised in Port Mourant, Berbice under poverty stricken conditions, first wearing a pair of shoes when he was a teenager.

He had the vision to recognize that to his people, it’s the smaller things that matter most times. Perhaps the most defining feature of his greatness lays in his understanding of his people, by living like the overwhelming majority of his people, that is to say, by living day-to-day in an unpretentious, unassuming manner wherein the simple things in life (clothes, food, belongings, accommodations, amenities, etc.) were not only sufficient but they were pleasurable and satisfying.

He wanted nothing which was not practical or functional, he had no use for the ‘finer’ things in life, and he desired no accumulation of wealth and frowned with disdain on squander and wastefulness in every instance (especially seeing his grandchildren waste even a single morsel of food).

Donald Ramotar

Dr. Jagan was truly utilitarian in this sense; because unlike countless others around the world, underlying the basis of his political drive was not a concern with personal gain or ambition, but rather, with working in furtherance of the full realization of the best interests of all his Guyanese brothers and sisters, irrespective of race, ethnicity, culture, gender, religion, etc.

This is how Dr. Jagan, my grandfather, lived. This is why, although on March 6, 1997, he departed his Guyanese people in physical form, he lives on in their hearts and the hearts of successive generations, until the end of time.

I have been back home for a little over a year now and I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several experiences and conversations with the man who will be responsible for moving Guyana forward through a comprehensive modernized framework, our future President who will lead our nation for the next ten years, Mr. Donald Ramotar.

What I have observed and can tell you, without a modicum of hesitation or reservation, is that Mr. Ramotar honorably follows in the prodigious tradition of Dr. Jagan’s modest upbringing and humble, down-to-earth nature.

One of the first things I noticed about Mr. Ramotar is that he dresses very similar to my grandfather; in a simple and modest yet sociably professional manner which portrays that he is on the same wavelength as his Guyanese people.

In fact, the first time I visited Mr. Ramotar at Freedom House, I observed that his PPP/C General Secretary office, the very same office, Dr. Jagan occupied as General Secretary, remains wholly untouched from such time. This is a noteworthy observation about the man who will move our country forward because it evinces Mr. Ramotar’s unfettered commitment to and respect/admiration for his hero as well as his implicit recognition that leadership must reflect humility.

In essence, the physical embodiment of the man Mr. Ramotar is, in itself, a tribute and homage to our founding-father, Dr. Jagan.

Mr. Ramotar is a simple man, who is seemingly unconcerned with the frivolousness of splendour and majesty.

Consequently, the PPP/C was wise in selecting Mr. Ramotar as its Presidential Candidate as he is the true embodiment of one of the overarching sensitivities the PPP/C has always stood for: humility, modesty, decorum and unpretentiousness.

Thank-you Mr. Ramotar for providing the PPP/C with another option to carry on the humble, modest, down-to-earth image of my grandfather, Dr. Cheddi Berret Jagan and for taking up the helms of the PPP/C leadership while still remaining committed to our hero’s lessons.

May God Always Bless Dr. Jagan and Mr. Ramotar.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Bull-$hit......Dr Jagan was no afraid to Debate, he had nothing to hide, Dr Jagan built the Union (GAWU) for the Sugar Workers and fought for it's recognition ..... and Ramotar & Jagdeo wants to de-recognise GAWU today and shutdown the industry.

Jagan collected money from the poor workers and PPP Grassroot to build Mirror.......Ramotar did an under-de-table Deal and Secretly transfered the Prime Real Estate belonging to the Mirror.

Ramotar took the Lenora Estate Compound and give it away to a friend.

Ramotar placed himself on Govt Boards and collected Hefty Salaries and Benefits.

Ramotar placed his children in Top Govt Positions which carried salaries of US$10,000. per month.
FM
Word is circulating within certain circles in central Florida that funds might be missing from a recent elections fund raising event attended by Ramouthar and selected members of the Jagdeo clique.....

Under Dr.Jagan all monies collected were accounted for.....this apparently is not so under Ramouthar....
FM
Ramotar will do a great job in governing the country. The PPP/C has been diligently working over the years to build the infrastructure with as much resourcefulness as possible in this developing nation.
Every day, people are working together - in society, in their homes and in the machinery of the government to make a better Guyana and is what the PPP/C has been trying to do in governing the country.

Not everything is in place, still ways to go. But let us recognise the progress guys.

Remember how far we have come from the days of you know who - the kabaka - It took the PNC regime to bring Guyana to the lowest and many of us fled.

When the PPP/C returned - and only under fair and free elections - the rebuilding has not been an easy job.

Multi-tasking has been the name of the game and not everything can be fixed at once.

Guyanese all across the country are raving about how things have improved in their lives.
C
Book already published this here. This was my response then.

I have no quarrel with CBJ being termed humble but assigning him founding father status is problematic. He was merely a long line of people who struggled for but he did not found us. Stephen Campbell, a native man fighting for native rights, an issue never broached by Cheddi in any particular way, did more for native peoples than anyone else. Why is he not a founding father?

The callous on his feet may have caused him to neglect the rights of native peoples but we never expect him to be perfect. After all, we never thought of shoes as being a necessity and were minimalist even with clothes. We are also not surprised that every "founding father" seems to belong to the transplanted group. That is habitual and deliberate omission. We the forgotten Guyanese named the nation and it is on our home world the nation originated but we are not surprised that we do not count here either.

The prospect of Ramotar leading us for ten years is not only a sickening thought but it is a urgency to militancy. We cannot have the PPP and t heir autocratic rule consolidate their corrupt practices with another decade. We need constitutional reform to direct constituencies with direct representations and real democracy. That CBJ's lunatic son will now tell us of the greatness of another Indian man and build his case not on his works but his "down to earth" image is alone reason for rejection of the thesis.

This is the same man that enriched himself and his family by squatting on two boards, doing nothing. On the first, his willful neglect of poor Indians is self evident as the catastrophic collapse of that industry needs no reminder. We have the 200 million failure at the Skeldon plant marking that, the loss of two boom years of sugar prices, the lose of EU support and the impoverishing of the workers.

On the second instance, he falt no pangs while sitting on the board of a pirate multinational who raped our land, precipitate one of the worlds worse environmental crisis in the dumping of millions of gallons of toxic chemicals and heavy metals into the rivers and yet never declaring a profit! Guyana can only select this creep if the people are mindless sheep. The only thing majestic for him is the regal way he plays the emperor with no clothes. We excuse him for a lack of shoes.
FM

Add Reply

×
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×