Donald Rabindranauth Ramotar
Former President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Donald Rabindranauth Ramotar (born 22 October 1950) is a Guyanese politician and former President of Guyana (2011 - 2015). He has been the General Secretary of the People's Progressive Party (PPP) since 1997.
Early life and education
Donald Rabindranauth Ramotar was born on the 22 October 1950 in the village of Caria Caria on the Essequibo River, to Mr. Sam Ramotar and Ms. Olive Constantine. His father was a Timber Grant operator and his mother a housewife. He has eight siblings.
Mr. Ramotar, an economist by training, received his primary education at Caria Caria Congregational School and the St. Andrew’s Primary School. He later pursued studies at the Government Technical Institute and went on to become a graduate of the Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Guyana. He also pursued studies in what was then the Former Soviet Union.
Career
He began his working career on his father’s timber grant. Between 1966 and 1975 he worked at GIMPEX, the commercial arm of the PPP. In 1975 he was appointed Manager of Freedom House, a position that he held for eight years. From 1983 to 1988, he served as a member of the Editorial Council of the magazine ‘Problems of Peace and Socialism’ and as the International Secretary of the Guyana Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU) between 1988 and 1993.
Having joined the PPP in 1967 he has been in the leadership of the party since 1979 when he was elected to the Central Committee. He became a member of the Executive Committee of the PPP in 1983 and assumed the position of Executive Secretary of the party one year after the PPP was restored to office in 1992. He became the General Secretary in March 1997 when Dr. Cheddi Jagan passed away, a position he holds today. Mr. Ramotar has had extensive experience within the party and has represented the party on numerous occasions overseas. He has published a number of articles and is a regular columnist for the mirror Newspaper. He was also a member of the ACP- EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and a Bureau member of that organization and a serving member of Guyana’s National Assembly since 1992. Ramotar also served on several Corporate Boards.
Personal life
President Ramotar is the husband of Deolatchmee Ramotar and the father of three children.
|
