Henry Jeffrey endorses APNU

Former Foreign Trade Minister in the PPP/C government Dr Henry Jeffrey has endorsed opposition coalition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) saying that this is the grouping that comes closest to his demand for radical constitutional change that would lead to shared governance.

Jeffrey has endorsed the party in his weekly column which is published in today’s edition of the Stabroek News. “Given my political stand, I must support the APNU because of all the parties, it comes closest to my demand for radical constitutional change to introduce a more equitable and participative governance arrangement,” he says.  Further, he says that the party has a good chance of preventing the PPP/C from gaining fifty percent of the votes cast if it is able to: “turn out every single traditional voter of its constituent parties; win significant quantities of Amerindian votes and strategically monitor every single polling place from the beginning to the very end of the election day process”.

According to Jeffrey, the Westminster form of governance is “insufficient” for ruling Guyana. “It is not that our parliament is useless; it simply was not designed to deliver the kind of outcomes our society requires,” he contends.  “The coming elections must be seen as an opportunity for political transformation: the constitution, the parliamentary and the electoral and general governance systems require revolutionary reforms,” he adds.

Dr Henry Jeffrey

The PPP/C if returned to  office will return to the old model, Jeffrey asserts, while rejecting Donald Ramotar’s recent statements that if elected he will work more closely with the stakeholders.  “It is too vague and we have heard and tried all of this before without any results,” he says.

Regarding the AFC, he says that while the party “holds a more progressive position than the PPP/C…it falls short” of his requirements.  “That party is committed to forming a government of national unity consisting of all the major political parties if it finds itself in a position to do so after the elections and to securing other constitutional changes that focus on the abolition of the executive presidency. However, it still appears wedded to the Westminster-type parliamentary system and has made no commitment to constitutionally established shared governance, and these issues I believe form the crux of our problems,” he says.

Jeffrey has previously been affiliated with the People’s National Congress but later became a civic member of the PPP/C government in 1992.  Under the PPP/C government, Jeffrey held the portfolio of Minister of Labour,  Housing,  Human Services and Social Security  from 1992 to 1997.  From 1997-2001, he served as Minister of Health then Labour and subsequently became Minister of Education in 2001. In 2006, he became the Foreign Trade Minister before stepping down in 2008 after a public dispute with President Bharrat Jagdeo over the position Guyana should take regarding the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.