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ROGER D RAMCHARITAR, Political and Communication Strategist

Roger D Ramcharitar is a Political and Communication Strategist based in the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago in the West Indies. He is currently a senior member of the Communication team to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, the Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar. He is also the Head of Government communications

In the recent past, Roger has been posted to a number of Communication Advisory roles in the Government in Energy and Energy Affairs; Public Administration; Gender, Youth and Child Development, and Finance and the Economy.

Roger entered the Communication field through the media, when he joined the Trinidad Guardian as a Reporter and eventually became Society Editor. He later became a Columnist on Youth and Politics before becoming a Communication Specialist in the United National Congress Government of 1995-2001, led by former Prime Minister, Basdeo Panday.

During the period 2000 to 2010, Roger pursued what, in his Facebook status in 2010, he described as “the most intense political and communication training I could ever have asked for”, referring to the opportunity to work in increasingly senior roles in five general elections (2000, 2001, 2002, 2007 and 2010).

PROFESSIONAL PURSUITS 2000 to 2010

From 2000 to 2010, Roger also pursued a number of professional roles which included a stint in Corporate Relations at his country’s Central Bank.

He was also posted as a Communication and Research Specialist to former Trinidad & Tobago Finance Minister and Wall Street Senior Investment Advisor, Wendell Mottley in his political organisation, the Citizens’ Alliance, and later as Researcher and Editorial Consultant of Mottley’s book entitled “Trinidad & Tobago Industrial Policy 1958-2008”.

He also held two other Editorial Research posts, working with the late International Economist, Lloyd Best, in compiling over three decades of his published work, and as Editorial Consultant in the second edition publication of the book by Jang Bagirathi, “Chalo Chinidad”.

Following the 2002 General Election which saw the United National Congress party narrowly defeated against the People’s National Movement (PNM), Roger migrated to the United Kingdom where he lived until 2005, working as a Contractor at one of UK’s largest healthcare companies, AXA PPP Healthcare, and then as Executive Assistant and Directorate Liaison with the Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Trust.

Roger returned to Trinidad & Tobago in 2005 and immediately began work with Winston Dookeran, a former Central Bank Governor and the country’s current Minister of Foreign Affairs, who at the time had just become Political Leader of the United National Congress, replacing Basdeo Panday who stood down from the leadership.

Rough political seas saw the UNC experiencing a number of internal leadership challenges and Dookeran subsequently broke with the UNC to form the Congress of the People. Roger became a founding member and a Political Communication Strategist to the newly formed party, assisting in the development of the party’s internal governance structures, policy agenda and positioning in the nation’s traditionally two-party political landscape.

By 2009, current Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced her intention to contest the UNC leadership, and Roger subsequently returned to the UNC, a party which he first joined in 1998.

By that time, Roger was posted at the ANSA McAL Group of Companies as a Group Analyst in Communications and for a short period, acted as Group Manager for Communications until his departure in mid-2010.

In that year, an early general election was called by then Prime Minister, Patrick Manning, which saw the landslide rise to power of Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar as UNC Leader, and also Leader of a coalition of five political parties – the UNC, COP, National Joint Action Committee (NJAC), Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) and the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ).

Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar became the Caribbean nation’s first woman Prime Minister, after previously serving as the nation’s first woman Attorney General in 1995, and first woman Leader of the Opposition in 2009. She first entered politics as an Alderman for the St Patrick County Council.

EARLY LIFE

Roger was born in Trinidad & Tobago in the late 1970s to Dana and George Ramcharitar, in the town of Chaguanas. Both parents founded and operated GA Ramcharitar Marketing Company Limited, one of the first indigenous import/export enterprises, trading in North America, the Caribbean and South America.

The Ramcharitar family also owned and operated the Caribbean Finance Company Limited and Dana's Variety Store, and for a short time held share interests in the Charles Horrell Shoe Company, a subsidiary of a British based company.

After his father passed away in 1985 at the age of 45, his mother assumed control of the businesses and is said to have shifted to “a more reclusive” life since.

Roger’s primary schooling was at the Montrose Vedic School and then the Chaguanas Government Primary School. His secondary schooling was at the Presentation College, Chaguanas for seven years. And his tertiary training is in Politics and Sociology at the former Royal Bank Institute of Business and Technology. He is also a graduate of the University of London's LLB Year 1 (equivalent to the University Diploma in Law).

As the grand-nephew of the country’s first Leader of the Opposition, Bhadase Sagan Maraj, Roger’s interests in politics were apparent from as early as secondary school, paying attention to Parliamentary debates and policy decisions of Legislators.

THOUGHTS ON MODERN COMMUNICATION

When, in conversation, Roger was asked about his thoughts on modern communication, he responded: “Modern Communication has evolved tremendously in the past decade; it’s become something that is seen as a critical factor of success, rather than a choice of organisations wishing to reach its publics.” “In the first decade of the 21st century, we saw a number of powerful interests unravel largely because of a preference for spin rather than fact. We’ve seen Wall Street tumble and the bottom fall out of some of the world’s most influential economies. We’ve seen the Deep Horizon disaster with BP. In each of the major crises of this century, what we see is that recovery truly began when persons and organisations took the path of consolidating and where needed, building trust with their publics, by saying, ‘look, we messed up, we’re sorry, and these are the measures we’re taking and we want you to remain on our side’.”

“And you would see there’s also been a simultaneous increase in corporate social responsibility initiatives with larger organisations. What this means is that the citizen of the world’ influence has grown using unprecedented access to information to say, ‘don’t spin me, be straight with me’. And people are also becoming much more adamant that if corporate interests are to profit from their communities, they must invest in some sort of lasting benefit to those communities.”

“I believe it is through that access to information like never before, and because of an increasingly sophisticated population in most of the world that organisations have had no choice but to throw out the spin and build communication, community and marketing strategies based on fact and strong relationships.”

“What I have found particularly encouraging is the 21st century’s Chief Executive appreciates the need to not only invest in communities, but also to do it based in scientific data of what’s important, what matters to people.”

Roger also believes that there is a “dangerous flip-side to information access” which he says has “made the case for much more robust communication strategies in any organisation that engages the public at some level”.

“Access to information has meant that management of information is more essential than years before. Through social media and digital communications, the wrong opinion, a cutting review or negative customer feedback can hurt organisations in real time. What this has meant is a much higher premium on crisis communications. Most of all though, it has brought to centre-stage the need to build lasting relationships, based on mutual respect, understanding of needs, goodwill and much more honesty.”

“The theory of the customer being King may have been born in the 20th century, but it’s now, in the 21st century that the customer has been truly coronated and that’s because of information and organisations understanding that the press release and the advertising campaign are not enough. In fact, I think this is part of the reason why Supply Chain Management has become a key function in large, efficient companies.”

CURRENT PROJECTS AND THE FUTURE

Roger is currently working with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago in a number of communication-related capacities. A general election is constitutionally due in that country in 2015 and Roger is working with Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar’s UNC and People’s Partnership coalition for re-election.

Asked about his future, Roger said that he has always wanted to return to the United Kingdom, “a place that became home for me, a place I’ve always enjoyed all through my life, a place where my footsteps inspire me.

“But my own compelling fantasies about the future would be meaningless if the present is not punctuated by hard work, focus and achievement.”

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