Latest update January 10th, 2025 5:00 AM
Apr 02, 2015 News
The apparent “military injection” into A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) as well as the influx of former military officers into the country to support the opposition party in the lead up to the May 11 polls, without a doubt, worries Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon and the government.
While he is of the firm conviction that his reasons for such a position are plausible, he believes that the conspicuous presence of retired army officers in the APNU also symbolizes the worst mistake the coalition’s leader David Granger has made in his life.
This concern was expressed during a press conference Dr. Luncheon held yesterday at the Office of the President.
Dr. Luncheon was at the time responding to questions over government’s apprehension at the support being extended to APNU by the army and former members of the military.
The Head of the Presidential Secretariat said that he sounded the warning on that matter before and hopefully in some of his future writings in the media, on the “military-political alliance”, he will reveal the depth of Government’s concern about the militarization of the leadership of the main opposition party.
Commenting on the basis for government’s concern about the feature of military presence in APNU, Dr. Luncheon gave the media a synopsis of his experience in 1992 and his role in interacting with the army which served under the stewardship of the People’s National Congress (PNC).
He said that Guyana went down a road under the PNC, which saw the disciplined forces, the military in particular,
having a strong presence in enforcement.
“One may want to argue that point but it would not be sustained…One however, could not argue that the military was not an active participant into the years of repression under the PNC government. I don’t think we can argue about that. But my concern dates back to 1992 when the then President, Dr. Cheddi Jagan said to me, ‘Luncheon you and the then Minister of Home Affairs, Feroze Mohamed, are tasked with rehabilitating the image of the military in the minds of Guyanese because this is a national institution.
“This perception of it being a hand maiden of the PNC and perpetrating all of the indecencies and the excesses on the Guyanese people has to be changed. We cannot allow that to cloud our image and our judgment on this military. Luncheon and Mohamed y’all got a job, clean up. Mek sure that this image is corrected,” Dr. Luncheon recalled.
The Cabinet Secretary said that he believes that the current administration did a good job because a professional military now exists.
However, Dr. Luncheon said that he does not believe that people’s memory is so short that when one observes those same two bodies (the military and the PNC) getting back together again, it doesn’t reasonably raise suspicions and causes us to wonder what if.
He added, “Suppose, heavens forbid, APNU were to succeed in the 2015 elections. Obviously they would have a serious debt to pay to the military.”
Dr. Luncheon also said that there has never been since 2011, any question in Parliament about appropriations or the denial of resourcing for the military.
He said that the APNU has, somehow, always seen it “appropriate” to join with the government in its financing and resourcing of the military.
Dr. Luncheon said that he spoke about this matter and wrote to Granger, saying to him that the military injection into his partnership is the worse decision he ever made in his life.
He said that the injection probably has a lot to do with the successes in being the APNU and PNC head but warned that “it will reawaken and arouse fears that have been dormant.”
The Head of the Presidential Secretariat said that he does not believe that it would be in the interest of the military and will write on these matters since much of what APNU has done thus far is, according to him, nothing but “politicking.”
“But it had undone 23 years of patient cultivation by this administration. That is what Granger has done…and who got ears fuh hear let them hear.”
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