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AFC leader says President must offer less talk, more action
Alliance For Change Leader Raphael Trotman says that to date President Bharrat Jagdeo is yet to formally respond to his call for inclusivity, which was adumbrated by the President during his inaugural address to the ninth Parliament in September 2006.
The President had ledged to join forces with the parliamentary opposition and “to find innovative ways to work together to solve the nation’s problems.
President Bharrat Jagdeo
Trotman said that he has heard and read the President’s response to the call for inclusivity in the media, and suggested that if the President was so sincere then there should be more action and less talking.
In an article carried in the Saturday, April 5 edition of the Guyana Chronicle under the headline, ‘PPP/C remains open to talks with Opposition– President stresses’, Jagdeo is quoted as saying the governing party remains open to talks on collaborating with its political opposition, including a possible formalized structure.
It was pointed out however that he is against an “alliance of convenience” and is insisting that any working together be based on goodwill and trust.
“We are open to have discussions with the opposition…we need to reach out to the PNC and AFC and all the others (and) if we can find better ways of collaborating, building trust, I don’t see why over time we can’t work together in a formalized structure”, he told reporters Thursday.
The President for a long time now has been saying that, “I don’t see any problem with that”, and this was reiterated in the article where he also again stressed that it has to be on the basis of goodwill, trust, and some social capital.
“Without that, it becomes hollow and an alliance or coming together of convenience, and it would fall apart and if it falls apart, we go backwards and get into a worse situation than we are in today”, the President argued.
He stated that the PPP/C under its late monumental co-founders and leaders, former Presidents Cheddi Jagan and his wife Janet, “always reached out and now we hope that the others can do so.”
Trotman, by way of a letter, recently wrote to President Jagdeo asking him to consider implementing his government’s “enhanced framework for cooperation” with the Parliamentary Opposition and with Civil Society prior to the Summit of the Americas.
AFC Leader Raphael Trotman
According to the AFC leader, the upcoming Fifth Summit of the Americas provides a unique opportunity for Guyana to showcase its inclusivity on the international stage, both in the crafting of the Guyana position on the agenda issues and in the composition of the Guyana delegation that will be in attendance.
The President adumbrated the new agenda, according to Trotman, during his inaugural address to the ninth Parliament in September 2006 in which he pledged to join forces with the parliamentary opposition and “to find innovative ways to work together to solve our problems.”
The AFC leader, in his letter to the President, stated that the Summit, unlike previous occasions, “appears to have an air of excitement and great expectation, particularly in view of the prevailing global financial crisis, as is reflected by its theme: ‘Securing our Citizens Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security and Environmental Sustainability’.”
The President had told the ninth Parliament that the agenda would be “pursued within an enhanced framework for political cooperation encompassing the principles of increased meaningful contacts, the identification and implementation of an agreed agenda of national issues and greater scope for the participation of Civil Society in the decision-making process.”
According to Trotman, undoubtedly, but only in a cursory manner, the agenda was implemented only in the aftermath of the Lusignan and Bartica massacres last year.
Since then there have been no further meaningful engagements that would have demonstrated the government’s commitment to the process that the President had so eloquently adumbrated.
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