McAllister paid one year for no work as MP

Dec 07, 2008 News

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The People’s National Congress Reform yesterday hosted its fourth and final General Council for 2008, at Congress Place, which sources said welcomed the decision by the party to recall James McAllister. There was resounding applause.

Apart from the charges by the Disciplinary Committee, it was pointed to the gathering that McAllister did not attend any sitting of the National Assembly for one year but (tax payers’) money for his role as a Member of Parliament (MP) was paid into his bank account each month.

The matter was compounded even further by the fact that at no time did McAllister inform the leadership of the party as to his reason for departure and hiatus.

Concern was also raised about Vincent Alexander continuing to maintain his post at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) as a Commissioner.

The Congress noted that Alexander resigned from a non-paying post but kept the post for which he was paid.

However, when contacted yesterday, Alexander said that there was nothing wrong for him to continue to hold that position in that Robert Corbin merely recommended him for the post and it was the President who appointed him to the position.

Alexander, on Friday, officially tendered his resignation from the Local Government Task Force, and he has not renewed his membership of the People’s National Congress Reform in retaliation for the recent recall of James Mc Allister from the National Assembly.

“This latest act of vendetta by the party has no doubt been motivated by McAllister’s steadfast commitment to the belief that the party, which he joined as a youth, has lost its way in recent years and was in need of new approaches and new leadership.”

According to Alexander, by moving against McAllister in such a manner, the Leader of the PNCR, Robert Corbin, “clearly feels no sense of shame in embracing a piece of PPP inspired legislation deliberately designed to strangle acts of independent thinking and individual initiative.”

Last year April, some members of the PNCR notified the party’s leadership of their intention to nominate someone other than Corbin to contest for the position of Leader of the Party at the party’s 2007 Congress.

Alexander told media operatives on Friday that the team intimated its intention to conduct a campaign among the membership of the party, in pursuance of that objective.

The team also indicated its intention to make a public announcement of its intent.
He emphasised that, at that time, the members’ actions were prompted by the fact that they wanted a leadership who would have introduced a new polity in the party, as well as the fact that they wanted to avoid “being victims of the old political culture that spouted democracy and free and fair elections but practised the opposite, hence their appeal to the conscience of the PNCR members and supporters.”

He noted that ‘Team Alexander’, as the members were quickly deemed, soon realised their fears “when a campaign of vilification was launched against them, rather than attempts at accommodation of their novel and modern approach to politics in Guyana”.

Team Alexander subsequently withdrew its candidacy in the face of “hostility and flagrant malpractices; and from participating in the farce of a Congress…However, the party, in its attempts to destroy the seeds of a new polity and to emasculate those who dared to traverse a new and progressive path, went into killer drive and trumped-up charges against those who dared to challenge the status quo.”

He added that the response of the vilified was to publicly expose the wrongdoings and blatant acts of discrimination that were perpetrated against them and anyone who dared to associate with their cause.

Some of the members of ‘Team Alexander’ continued to serve the party in causes that were considered worthy, according to Alexander, who added that others simply went about their private lives.

He noted that the party persisted for over a year, “in its witch-hunt,” culminating in all of the accused, who granted the Disciplinary Committee the courtesy of a response, being found guilty and being reprimanded for poor judgment, among other things.

As it relates to McAllister, Alexander said that James McAllister, whom he described as the “fiercest of the fair and fearless,” was identified for special treatment, in that he was removed without a hearing from an elected office in Region Three, and charged with 11 counts of indiscipline.

He noted that two more charges that had never been communicated to McAllister were brought and heard in his absence, and his guilt was determined. “What a travesty of justice…or a perpetration of injustice.”

As a consequence of “these trumped-up” charges, McAllister, on the recommendation of the Disciplinary Committee, was recalled from the National Assembly with effect from December l, 2008.

The General Council is the highest forum of the Party between Congresses and was attended by representatives from the 10 regions.

The main address to the General Council was presented by the Leader of the PNCR, Corbin.
On Thursday last it was noted that the General Council would be taking place against the background of the deepening economic crisis in the country, rampant criminality in society, the crumbling of the physical infrastructure, and the inability of the ‘Jagdeo Administration’ to define a purpose and a vision to propel the society forward.

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