Chris Ram’s questionable actions

Dear Editor,

IT is a bad editorial policy to publish criticisms by other writers, and not publish the letters that are the subject of criticism in the letters section. This observation has been made over a period of time of one particular media house, namely Kaieteur News (KN).

I have seen letters written by Mr Joel Bhagwandin being published in other newspapers, but not in KN, and then a few days later, KN would publish letters from others criticizing Mr Bhagwandin.

Specifically, there were some public commentaries on a finance-related matter that Chris Ram wrote about, which was challenged by Joel Bhagwandin. To date, Ram himself has not defended his argument or responded to Mr

Bhagwandin.

Yet, there were two letters by his defenders, in what appeared to be a desperate attempt to protect whatever perceived reputation Ram thrives on.

It is public knowledge that Chris Ram has a good relationship with Stabroek News (he is a columnist in that newspaper and if I am not mistaken, he is also their auditor). He also has a good relationship with KN’s publisher and there is a perfect relationship between both of their modus operandi in the political sphere.

Coming back to his perceived reputation that two authors have been tasked to defend (apparently on his behalf), truth be told, Chris Ram has no credible reputation whatsoever. He is an irrelevant noise maker or as Guyanese would say, “he is a loud mouth,” and worse, he is opportunistic.

He has a well-established reputation for rallying against persons who do not give him his way. He does this to political parties as well as companies. This can be easily and systematically proven as I set out to do hereunder –where reasonable deductions can be derived.

There is a beautifully written letter published in the Stabroek News of June 24, 2020, by Desmond Trotman. In this letter, Mr Trotman responded to Chris Ram who launched his usual tyrannical attack on the WPA at the height of the elections fiasco in 2020.

Here are a few excerpts from that letter by Mr Trotman, that corroborates the notion that Chris Ram is an egregious opportunist and when he doesn’t get what he wants, he ventures into the most awful and aggressive campaign aimed at ridiculing and destroying his opponents.

Mr Trotman wrote: “Ram should tell the truth about why he is so angry with Dr Roopnaraine, Ogunseye, me (D. Trotman) and the WPA.”

Mr Trotman goes on to reveal that subsequent to the discussions Ram had with the named members of the WPA in the lead-up to the 2015 general and regional elections, he (Chris Ram) was asked if he would allow his name to be put forward as WPA’s choice for the Prime Ministerial candidate on the APNU’s list of candidates.

Though Ram was not the finalised candidate, he firmly believed that he would be the chosen one and began to spread the news that he’s the WPA’s choice for Prime Minister. Mr Trotman further disclosed that a few in the executive of the WPA, including him, opposed

Ram’s candidacy because they felt he was unsuitable for the role.

According to Mr Trotman, he told the executive that “politically, I consider him to be a loose cannon and an unguided missile, whose candidacy would have disastrous consequences for the APNU.

Interestingly in that letter, Mr Trotman noted that Ram and Ogunseye had some discussions, during which he was told by Ogunseye that the matter was not agreed upon but is still being discussed.

Readers, does this not make sense now why Chris Ram was completely silent on the recent racially inspired controversy involving Mr Ogunseye?

In the final quote from Desmond Trotman’s letter, he outrightly labelled Ram a ‘hypocrite.’ Trotman even backed this up by pointing out that while Ram became a staunch critic of the APNU government on the corruption front, he still accepted several contracts valuing large sums from the APNU government.

Fast forward to 2020, Ram shifted gear to ingratiate himself with the PPP with the hope that he would get whatever he asked for. It was not a case where he was not offered anything, though, he was, but those were not compatible with his politically motivated desires.

He wanted to be on the very body that Mr Bhagwandin sits, and it is public record when he launched an attack on the young man. But he never expected that Mr Bhagwandin would be unintimidated.

Christopher Ram is not what he would like others to think through the third-party defenders of his reputation.

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