The shocking secret part of the Cummingsburg Accord

Feb 10, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – It would be interesting to read or hear if the two AFC bigwigs – David Patterson and Dr. Vincent Adams – who negotiated the renewal of the Cummingsburg Accord would agree to talk publicly about the parts of the accord that both the PNC and the AFC agreed to keep secret.
After negotiating the extension of the covenant in February just three weeks before the elections in which the AFC accepted a reduction of shared resources in the event of a victory from 40 percent to 30 percent, both political parties agreed not to make public the document in its entirety arguing that there was a need for certain sections to remain secret. See my column of Friday, February 14, 2020, “No human can be so sick to vote for such Guyanese politicians.”
Both parties were dead serious about the secrecy clauses, because even their executive members did not know what was inside the final agreement. The secrecy declaration was a departure from traditional politics anywhere in the world in modern times. Where are the other examples from modern politics where two electoral contestants decide to join forces to participate as a coalition entity and the hierarchy of each party, which outside of congress, is the executive not informed.
Can anyone see that happening in London where a small group within the Labour Party and Lib Dems agree to an election arrangement and the party executives were left out? That would never happen in the UK. Guerrilla warfare would break out immediately in both organizations.
Six executive members of the AFC told me in the final statutory meeting of the national executive held at the Georgetown Club, on a Saturday in February before the general election on March 2, only the proposed changes to the Accord was presented on a screen. After that they did not know what became of those proposals. So they did not see the final, sealed document.
After Joe Harmon and Khemraj Ramjattan publicly announced that sections of the renewed marriage licence have to remain undisclosed, I had a huge argument with Deputy General-Secretary of the AFC, Leonard Craig, in the presence of Ogle airport engineer, Raymond Persaud, who works for Gerry Gouveia. I quote his name as a witness though I trust Craig not to deny our conversation.
I told Craig that it is unheard of in politics that something of immense importance to a political party would not be endorsed by the central executive. I can remember distinctly what Craig’s response was. He explained that a party has to delegate people to make decisions on its behalf. I rejected that line, telling him that is standard behaviour but there are exceptions where the national executive has to know and the Cummingsburg Accord is one such situation.
The AFC is dead and gone and one wonders if its leaders would ever level with the Guyanese people and tell them what the undisclosed parts were. Well I will do so in the paragraphs to follow. There were no plural, only singular. There were no parts only one part. Here it is.
In the Accord there was a reference to the presidency becoming vacant in the event of death, illness and/or resignation and both parties agreed that in such a circumstance, the AFC will not fill the vacancy but allow a replacement to come from the PNC. Interesting to note, the wording did not say, APNU, but PNC.
The PNC was inflexible about that clause and when it was first raised, the AFC never sought to highlight it within the general membership because the fortress of six – Raphael Trotman, Ramjattan, Patterson, Cathy Hughes, Dominic Gaskin and Dr. Vincent Adams knew it would have erupted in a volcano.
Both the PNC and AFC knew it would have been suicidal to make that clause public in the midst of an election campaign. Here you have two fraternal parties that have joined forces to win the election but if they win, then should the president from the PNC step down or dies, the AFC cannot replace the presidency, which is what the constitution dictates.
As a spin off from this was the mortal fear that permeated the war rooms of the PNC and AFC – the PPP would make mincemeat out of them. The words of the AFC in 2014 came back to haunt them in February 2020 – if we join the PNC we will become dead meat. So how were they going to stop the PPP from devastating them with the admission that the AFC could never have the presidency should the APNU+AFC ticket win? Really, the APNU+AFC don’t deserve to lead this nation anymore in the future.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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