Moses Nagamootoo

Moses Veerasammy Nagamootoo (born 30 November 1947) is a Guyanese politician and writer who has been Prime Minister of Guyana since 2015. He is of Tamil ethnicity.^[1]

Life and career

Nagamootoo was born in the village of Whim, in the eastern County of Berbice, Guyana. He worked as a teacher and journalist, and later became a lawyer.

He was elected to Parliament in 1992 as a People's Progressive Party MP and subsequently served as Minister of Information and Minister of Local Government. He remained in Cabinet under the presidencies of Cheddi Jagan, Samuel Hinds, Janet Jagan and Bharrat Jagdeo. He resigned as Minister in 2000 but remained an MP until 2011, when he resigned from the PPP, having first joined in 1964.

As a leader of the PPP, Nagamootoo received the fifth-highest number of votes (595) in the election to the PPP Central Committee at its 29th Congress on August 2, 2008.^[2]

Nagamootoo was rumoured to be a potential PPP candidate for President in 2011; however, he resigned from the party on October 24, 2011, citing the need for "more ideas and a new conversation about Guyana's economic and foreign policy future". He joined the opposition Alliance For Change (AFC) in October 2011 and was re-elected to Parliament.

Following the opposition's victory in the May 2015 general election, Nagamootoo was sworn in as Prime Minister and First Vice-President on 20 May 2015.^[3]

As a writer

He is the author of the novel Hendree's Cure (2001), which describes a world of Tamil fishermen who inhabited the Corentyne village of Whim in the 1950s and 1960s.

References

External links

• (Paywalled) Article on one of Nagamootoo's novels in Callaloo.
• Article on Nagamootoo in Stabroek News
• Article on Nagamootoo in Stabroek News
• Author information at Peepal Tree Press

Heads of government of Guyana Cheddi Jagan Forbes Burnham Ptolemy Reid Desmond Hoyte Hamilton Green Sam Hinds Janet Jagan Sam Hinds Bharrat Jagdeo Sam Hinds Moses Nagamootoo