He hopes to appeal his expulsion from the PPP before the broader membership of the party at its congress, which comes up in two years; or have the decision overturned by an ongoing signature campaign.

Another option open to him will be to approach the Executive Committee (Exco) and request the decision be rescinded at the next Central Committee meeting. Legal action is another option, but only as a last resort. However, if he opts for legal action it would be directed against those individuals who conspired to expel him; whether or not he takes this option, will depend on the treatment meted out to him by the Executive Committee.

So far, groups in East Berbice, West Demerara and Essequibo have passed resolutions endorsing the Exco's decision. Additionally, Ramjattan was invited then uninvited to a parliamentary sub-committee meeting recently.

Ramjattan was ostensibly expelled for claiming that Presi-dent Bharrat Jagdeo had accused him of leaking committee meeting information to the media and the US Embassy, a charge Jagdeo has denied, and so have 29 members of the Central Committee. In fact it may have been a column in Stabroek News where he indirectly described remarks made by Jagdeo as infantile.

Then again his dissension has been going on for many years.

In March 1994, Ramjattan's criticisms of what he considered an aversion to public scrutiny by then Police Commissioner Laurie Lewis and Minister of Home Affairs Feroze Mohamed did not go down well with the party's leadership.

"I honestly felt the top leadership within the police force [at the time] that had proved unprofessional ought to have been sidelined or totally dismissed... and replaced by persons who had been newly trained by the Scotland Yard for instance...," Ramjattan says.

He says that by refusing the scrutiny of the concerned citizenry, democracy was being shelved and supplanted by autocracy and this, in his view, represented the first sign of collapse and destruction in the force. "I have lived to see the police force virtually destroyed."

He remembers that after becoming a parliamentarian in 1992, he questioned several of the PPP government's policies. He says he had misgivings from the beginning after he observed the party following a socialist ideology.

As the dramatic global changes taking place became more obvious, Ramjattan's urge to see changes in the party's ideological position became more pressing. He passed a resolution and managed to get approval at a PYO Congress to have such words as Communism and Marxist-Leninism deleted from the PYO's constitution and make it more "youth friendly". "I found myself thereafter being looked upon by the upper brass of the leadership as someone who was not part of the gang, not part of the team..."

Then came the proposals by himself and leading members of the Section 'K' Campbellville group for amendments to the party's constitution. But Ramjat-tan's proposals were shot down at the Port Mourant Congress in 2002 with persons calling him a "rat" - this was later withdrawn - because somehow it had been leaked to the press and the reaction at the public level showed major support.

"I wasn't foolish enough to believe I would win the debate at the Port Mourant Congress but I wanted to open up the eyes and minds of the membership to this new arrangement that we should work under...so that I could deal with [the proposals] at other fora..."

Promises that this proposal would be heard at the regional level and otherwise were never fulfilled.

He says there is need for the party's central committee to be geographically and gender balanced and he had also called for more audited financial statements to be made available so that membership would know where their money was going.

Meanwhile, Ramjattan says he was forced to write to former president Janet Jagan and PPP General Secretary Donald Ramotar about what he says were their attempts to censure the cases he took on in his private practice as an attorney. They did not like it that he seemed to be hard hitting on the Customs and Excise Department. He told them to stay away from interfering with the conduct of his business.

A trip to Helsinki in the company of PNCR and WPA MPs, Raphael Trotman and Sheila Holder caused problems when Ramjattan says he discovered that Jagdeo had made attempts to stop the trip. He said his evidence was corroborated by the fact that Jagdeo had stopped his own representative from attending.

Ramjattan also did not support the manner in which the party selected its presidential candidates and said he found their centrist approach "stifling".

It was easier with Cheddi around...

According to Ramjattan, Presi-dent Cheddi Jagan proved a shoulder to lean on whenever he had disagreements with the party's hardliners. This was "...because Cheddi loved to debate and I saw him as someone who recognised the world was changing, evolving...he was Gorbachev long before Gorbachev."

But Ramjattan says he had not thought of himself as being a delinquent member because of his contradictory views; rather he compared the resulting arguments between himself and party hardliners to "family quarrels".

But he notes that when he was called to the disciplinary hearing at the Office of the President before Dr. Roger Luncheon and Reepu Daman Persaud, he indicated "...that when I joined the party in 1990 I never ever was going to relinquish my very critical mind and make it servile to this party and its leadership..."

Ramjattan says he would not have done anything differently. He feels the course he chose was appropriate because the need for changes ought to be adequately promulgated through the writings of a credible source.

He believes the media provides an excellent outlet for this to occur and further he possesses the necessary credentials to assume the role of the voice of positive change.

"I felt that at some point, it had to be said at a very public level that there is need for changes...[and this could be achieved] by taking important issues of a national character to the press. I knew this had party implications but I felt as a leading member of the PPP, if the boundaries of democracy were going to be broadened, it had to be through writings that came from a credible source, a category into which I fit very easily because I think I can write and I think I've got credibility."

Who is Khemraj Ramjattan?

He is the eldest of two children born to Teekha, a teacher and Rohini, a housewife and farmer, at Number 48 Village in Berbice.

Ramjattan describes his father, a former Lions member, who died in 1994, as a sociable man who enjoyed good company. Rohini was a traditional housewife who took care of Khemraj and his younger sister, Sattie - who now lives in America with her husband and three children- and managed the family farm, which grew rice, coconuts and shallots.

When his father was promoted to deputy head teacher at a city school, the family moved there. As a result, young Khemraj was exposed to school life both in Berbice and Georgetown, first attending primary school in Number 47 Village before completing that phase of his education at Rama Krishna.

He later attended North Georgetown Secondary before the family returned to Berbice and he successfully read for eight GCE O-level subjects at JC Chandisingh Secondary.

The genesis of Ramjattan's political life...

He joined the Progressive Youth Organisation at age 14 while a Fourth Form student.

"[At the time] I used to walk with Mitra Devi Ali [current permanent secretary at the Ministry of Legal Affairs] and a man named Roshan Ali from Number 45 Village to Number 53 Village selling Thunder, Cheddi Jagan's West on Trial, Mirror newspaper and so on. And I used to enjoy the cricket games sponsored by the PYO."

After teaching for a year at Manchester Secondary, Khemraj went on to the University of Guyana where he entered the pre-law programme and attained 4 A passes but failed to receive a scholarship under the PNC government because of his PYO activities.

At the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus, Khemraj made the honour role when he received his LLB degree before proceeding to the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad where he obtained his Certificate of Legal Education.

In 1984, after being admitted to the Guyana Bar, the young attorney launched a promising career at the chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions prior to moving to work alongside Senior Counsel Bernard De Santos. He later took control of those chambers when De Santos took up his appointment as Attorney General in 1992.

Ramjattan and the party...

Ramjattan officially became a member of the PPP two years before they were elected to government but was disqualified although he had been duly nominated. Bharrat Jagdeo had also been short of membership years (usually five years) in terms of the actual party but was allowed in because he had been in Moscow at the time. Another member had been short of membership as well but had been allowed in because of his/her association with the Communist Party of Canada.

About forming his own party...

But the 43-year-old attorney notes that in Guyana history has shown that breaking away from major political parties does not work out favourably for the individual who leaves.

He says one of the disadvantages of starting new parties is embedded in being unaware of the true calibre of the individuals chosen to make up the membership of the new party.

He says attempting to influence change within the existing party is likely to be more effective since one has a better idea of the sort of opposition which is likely to occur based on the years of association with that membership.