-but wants no external management
The main opposition PNCR on Friday reacted with alarm to the threat to the £3 million security sector reform plan posed by disagreements between the Guyana and UK governments, but a lead spokesman said it would not support external management of the process.
Basil Williams
At the PNCR’s weekly press briefing, party vice-chairman Basil Williams said “We can’t sign on to any plan which is externally managed.”
Admitting that all the details of the disagreement were not known, he, however, added that the differences with the British Government can be composed. “Cool heads and logical minds can do this,” he said, while noting that once differences are ironed out the Bharrat Jagdeo administration “must move with energy to secure the funding for the [plan] and ensure its smooth implementation.”
At the start of the week British High Commissioner Fraser Wheeler revealed his frustration with the delay in implementation of the reform plan, saying some persons in government were quibbling about administrative details.
However, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon, the government’s lead negotiator in the process, cited disagreement over the UK’s proposals for implementing the reform plan, which he said disregarded an agreement for local ownership of the process. As a result, he affirmed that the government is not prepared to cede an inch of its sovereignty.
He described the reform plan as being important for the reform and strengthening of the security sector, which he said is a vital requirement in the fight against crime. “A secure environment will ensure protection for our citizens and help in the creation of an environment which can attract legitimate investors,” he stated, while urging that the government recognise the importance of implementing the plan. “We are not amused by these games and are urging the government to take a serious approach to implementation of the plan,” he added.
However, the British High Commission has reaffirmed that it is committed to “Guyana’s national ownership” of the programme and to “build the capacity of national institutions to implement it. “We remain open and ready to discuss any issue in relation to the programme,” it said in a brief statement on Wednesday.
An interim Memorandum of Understanding for the four-year £3 million (nearly $1 billion) Security Sector Reform Action Plan was signed between Guyana and the UK in August 2007.
AFC leader Raphael Trotman on Thursday said his party was “extremely disturbed” by the report of the government’s unwillingness to proceed with joint implementation of the plan. It is reflective of a pattern by the Jagdeo administration of refusal to participate and implement whenever the need for comprehensive reform is identified within institutions that touch on governance, he said, accusing the government of frustrating the process to achieve its objective of ensuring minimal or no governance reforms.
This is a serious matter and deserves attention. The PPP is acting like a dictatorship and the UK is on to them.
Do you expect the Government to buckle to the UK because they are financing the project after the UK are now not sticking to the MOU that was signed in 2007??? This warrants further discussions Luncheon is in perfect order…
The big question is does this government have any concern about the people? The security system is in keas and all they can do is playing gig saw puzzle with the lives of the Guyanese People.
The Guyana Government do not want the UK Government involved in their security plan because they are afraid what they will find out. Too many skeleton in the closet.
Too many skeletons in the closet. They scared PPP running scared!! They running scared!! Why are they? No love for the Guyanese people. They just want to be in power and do not care about a thing else.
I guess the majority of Guyanese are not seeing things as you are NAVYSEAL,,,because the PPPC are winning elections free and fair since 1992 and will continue to do so.. So it is better for you to retract your statement…
soldier don’t bury your head in the sand. no election in guyana after 1964 was and will never be fair. i can site instances and facts for you but sn’s will not publish it.
Navy, you talking about the ppp as if they been in there for 28 years already .
It’s all about transparency, that’s why they can’t come to an agreement, i don’t see nothing wrong if the brits oversee the project and have a few brits in the country to help implement the project, some caribbean islands has implement it already and it’s doing good.
The pathetic PPP government is near the end of their rope, there is no place left to run. They are all going to be caught with their pants down and the whole house of cards will come crumbling down and the Guyanese nation will get another chance to build itself up again.
SKY ..And when you wake up what happen??? Were you sweating from head to toe???
What part you don’t like the ending?
Hey Sky , you still on cloud nine ? I don’t mind you blasting the ppp but you said ” the guyanese nation will get another chance to build itself up again .” Well under which gov’ment ? I hope you ain’t mean pncr .No party ain’t going in as gov’ment to build guyana , they going in to get from guyana. PNC did it , ppp in the process and the now PNCR wants to continue it . So who gon build the country.
Not wanting accountability and transparency; the political administration is attempting to subver this plan behind the veil of ’sovereignity’, ‘ownership’, semantics, nationalistic demogogery, spin and propanganda.
80% of the economy, was ‘owned’ and controlled by the undemocratic and dictatorial Burnham’s regime (with the support and collaboration of the PPP’s communist elite) to the detriment; economic decline, poverty, food and fuel shortages, blackmarketing, starvation and malnutrition, political assassination and murder, repression of the press, massive migration to US and other ‘massa’ countries.
Guyanese, should learn from the lessons of the past and guard against the leaders of the PPP and PNC, who are once again using the superficial, false and deceptive arguments of national’ownership’, for their (PPP and PNC) authoritarian and dictatorial objectives.
Light: “Not wanting accountability and transparency; the political administration is attempting to subver this plan behind the veil of ’sovereignity’, ‘ownership’, semantics, nationalistic demogogery, spin and propanganda.”
Agreed. And they took it right out of Burnham’s playbook. As if Guyanese wouldn’t spot it a mile up the road, as if we didn’t travel this route before.
I have not heard such nonsense as comments over such an over blown issue before.Basically nothing sensible was aired, and the political rantings are ratcheted up again to no avail. Now get real.Think and keep your mouth shut.Geography is destiny.And progress depends on where you live. That is why these people have taken the risks of going to Barbados to seek what they view as better opportunities.Opportunities Guyana does not have, because Guyana is not Barbados.No amount of Guyana blame game scapegoating politics can can help these people in Barbados.
what a laugh! the pnc concerned about security? then they shouldn’t drape flags on coffins of dead criminals and organize street protests and “slo fyah, mo fyah”.
At the PNCR’s weekly press briefing, party vice-chairman Basil Williams said “We can’t sign on to any plan which is externally managed.”
Well said Sir.
Is this not what the Government saying?
Aren’t you just repeating what the Government and Guyanese already knew?
Is it not the very Massa that created and caused all this racial tension in Guyana?
Should they be allowed to rule Guyana again only in a diplomatic way?
Come on guys,work with Government on this and other security issues if not nothing will ever get done in Guyana.
quibian , L.Leroy , way to go Maple Leaves !!
Pnc supporters forget who used to abuse guyana and steal all the natural resources and shipping to the queen !
Now they want to still hug and kiss her majesty behind , without realizing the hidden agenda of the former slave master !