With only a few days before the next scheduled national stakeholders meeting on security, concerns are being expressed that the contributions made by the committee have not been circulated as yet for consideration.
When contacted by telephone yesterday, four members of civil society and one from the political parties who attended the last stakeholders meeting held at the Office of the President on February 27, 2008 told Stabroek News that the flurry of activities they have had to deal with over the past few days caused them to literally forget that the next meeting is due on Wednesday.
According to the statement coming out of the last meeting, the government, parliamentary political parties and representatives of civil society agreed to support the national security sector plan and its various components and to tabulate and circulate the recommendations in advance of another meeting to be held within two weeks at which time the recommendations would be examined.
Stabroek News has learnt that the recommendations were to be condensed and tabulated by the Office of the President and then circulated but this has not yet been done.
One civil society representative, who requested anonymity, said that he had hoped that the recommendations would have been circulated early enough to allow for adequate discussions at the level of the organisations so that when the meeting reconvenes the representatives would be in a position to make informed decisions.
Meanwhile the PNCR, at its weekly press briefing held yesterday at Congress Place, Sophia, expressed disappointment that President Bharrat Jagdeo who at the end of the stakeholders meeting spoke of the spirit of cooperation among the various representatives but “took aim at the opposition (PNCR) and virtually accused its members of being associated with criminals” at the recent Babu John ceremony held at Port Mourant, Corentyne to pay tribute to the memory of the late president Dr Cheddi Jagan.
The PNCR said it has always believed that the security crisis facing the nation could only be adequately discussed and ventilated in circumstances where all of the stakeholders believe that a climate of trust and reconciliation exists.
The party said that such irresponsible statements were hardly likely to promote the cooperation and trust necessary for addressing the serious and precarious security concerns in Guyana.
Calling on the President to state “quite clearly and unambiguously who are those persons calling for power sharing and who have stated that they can control those ‘killings if they are part of the government,'” the PNCR said that the President owes the nation an explanation.
The PNCR noted that at Babu John it was not the first such occasion the President used to castigate the party “to send subliminal messages to his own constituency.”
The party recalled that just before the 2006 general and regional elections, the Presi-dent had said that if certain elements of the opposition got into government they would give AK-47s freely. “Every Guyanese schoolchild knew exactly what he was saying”, the party declared.
The PNCR had attended a meeting of the parliamentary political parties with the President but had not signed a communiqu
