– restates commitment to national unity
While reiterating a continued commitment to forging national unity, leaders of the ruling PPP yesterday denounced attempts to portray the late former president Janet Jagan as someone who stood in the way of reconciliation.
“The PPP has taken careful note that her detractors have opportunistically exposed their hand—within less than 24 hours of her state funeral—seeking to suggest that her passing and our loss provides an opportunity to reconcile,” President Bharrat Jagdeo told a news conference at Freedom House. “In saying so, they deviously imply that it was Comrade Janet who was the obstacle to reconciliation and building national unity,” he said.
Jagdeo was at the time accompanied by other members of the PPP Executive and Central Committees, including Dr Roger Luncheon, Ralph Ramkarran, Gail Teixeira Clement Rohee, Robert Persaud, Irfaan Ali and Clinton Collymore. PPP General Secretary Donald Ramotar was, however, absent from the news conference as he had to attend to urgent business overseas.
According to Jagdeo, the PPP’s leadership and its membership remain united and solidly committed to reconciliation and unity. He said the PPP would continue to strive to find common ground and opportunities at the level of the National Assembly with the opposition, with civil society and at the community levels in order to enhance confidence and build trust and unity among the people. He added that the party is also committed to continuing the process at all levels, including governmental, parliamentary and extra parliamentary forums like the National Stakeholder’s Forum. “We remain open to dialogue with any progressive force which will bring our people together, whether its the PNC or other groups” Jagdeo said, adding, “But there are some principles which the party has outlined, that will be the basis on which enhanced cooperation will take place.” He said decency is one of the principles upon which cooperation rests, while noting that the party’s offer of national unity is not temporary and subject to capriciousness.
Mrs Jagan died early last Saturday morning at the Georgetown Public Hospital. Following her death there was an outpouring of tributes across the political divide, while the opposition parties included calls for reflections upon the need for unity.
Although he did not identify them, Jagdeo said that in their larger agenda Mrs Jagan’s detractors were prepared to continue to besmirch her name along with the party’s fundamental commitment to national unity, which has been consistent since inception. “We also believe fundamentally that this country has to be for all its people and the benefits must be shared in a just way,” he said, “This is why, because of that grounding we will not tolerate racism in this party or religious prejudices, that is a legacy that we have and that we move forward with; this is why we consistently seek national unity, because we recognise that it is only through national unity that the full potential of this country will blossom open.”
He noted that even after the 1955 split, which led to the creation of the PNC, the PPP has consistently sought national unity, while making concessions to preserve and enhance national cohesion. He cited the Herdmanston Accord and the St Lucia Agreement as examples of concessions made by the party, which included a reduction in its term of office after the 1997 elections. “Our party led radical constitutional reform which created Guyana’s model of inclusive governance, unparalleled in other countries in this region,” Jagdeo said. Moreover, he noted that the reform laid the basis for the ongoing parliamentary reform process, which he described as the most progressive in the region and comparable with the most advanced democracies in the Commonwealth.
Jagdeo also said the party rejected public statements of persons who sought to speak on behalf of the PPP, misrepresenting its track record and positions.
PPP Executive Committee members Dr Roger Luncheon and Clement Rohee both reiterated the position. Luncheon said that the party wanted to recognise Mrs Jagan’s legacy of struggling to achieve national unity in Guyana from the pre-independence period, while Rohee said that the party has never shirked its responsibility in seeking to bring the people together, adding that it did not require Mrs Jagan death to force the issue. “This has been the very embodiment of the party,” he added, saying it has been arduous task in which the party continues to persevere despite attempts to thwart it on many occasions.
Executive Committee member Ralph Ramkarran sought to dismiss several recent comments in the press characterising Mrs Jagan as an ideologically rigid person with a lifelong pursuit of an alleged communist agenda for the country, which has been linked to the claim that she was against national unity. Ramkarran noted that while she was strongly in support of the party’s progressive orientation, Mrs Jagan was not an ideologue and never insisted on any kind of ideological rigidity. He described her as a social activist whose activism was informed by a progressive liberal, anti-imperialist political outlook, which remained with her for the rest of her life.
Ramkarran added that while Mrs Jagan supported the collective views and leadership of the PPP, she also disagreed with the views of the collective from time to time. “As I do, as Dr Luncheon does, as the President does, as everybody here does,” he said, adding “At the end of the day, the collective approach is one which has united our party and kept it strong [and] it is that same approach which since 1955 has seen numerous initiatives for national unity in Guyana.” He likened political dialogue to a marriage, noting there must be a courtship. “We have always stretched our hands to begin and continue that courtship and it remains stretched,” he said.
President Jagdeo added, “But if you don’t have a person who is willing to respond to your affections then you wouldn’t have a successful arrangement.”
He said that so far there has been no productive response from the opposition to any of the initiatives for political cooperation. In this vein, he once again recalled an attempt to start discussions with the PNCR for greater cooperation at the national level — an approach Mrs Jagan endorsed, he said. However, he said it failed as a result of the PNCR leader Robert Corbin pandering to hard-line elements. “So saying this is an opportunity now, is not very honest, because we made a significant attempt to do so when Janet Jagan was still alive,” he said.
When questioned about whether a change in the leadership of the PNCR could likely see renewal of engagement, Jagdeo said it was a question for the party’s business.
Asked why there had been no attempt to sustain the National Stakeholder’s Forum, Jagdeo explained that it was never envisaged as a forum to replace engagement in the National Assembly. “Throughout, we have sought to make the National Assembly the place where the deliberations could be done between the parties because of the openness of that forum and because the closed door sessions were not yielding results,” he said. He added that it was felt that if parties were required to state their positions in a forum where the public could observe, they may be a bit more responsible. “We think in democracies that [the National Assembly] is where a lot of the engagements should take place,” he said too. He added that the Stakeholder’s Forum would continue, but indicated that it was “an ad hoc mechanism” to deal with various issues from time to time, rather than as a permanent mechanism to replace the National Assembly. Further, he pointed out that in the new constitution, the National Assembly can provide for civil society participation in its hearings where it can give views on certain matters.
