AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan is not perturbed at the chairing of the first Cabinet meeting on Tuesday by President David Granger though this was not what the party’s pre-election accord with APNU enshrined.
Ramjattan also told Stabroek News yesterday that Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Nigel Hughes has been tasked by his party with leading negotiations to ensure adherence to the Cummingsburg Accord, which underpinned the successful pre-election alliance with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
Ramjattan’s statements come in the wake of concerns that one of the key features of the Accord—that Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo would chair Cabinet meetings—has already been breached. Granger had also chaired the first informal Cabinet meeting during the previous week.
During an interview with Stabroek News yesterday, Ramjattan, who is now First Vice-President and Minister of Public Security in the APNU+AFC coalition government, said that Hughes will now lead a team with two others to meet with whomever is appointed by APNU to address the February 14th accord to ensure “we have as much adherence as possible….”
“The entire top brass (of the AFC), except for him [Hughes] are ministers and we are now government functionaries and we do not want our party activities and our party policy orientations and our party’s obligations to its membership and [supporters] ever to be compromised by the fact that we are ministers,” Ramjattan said.
He said that Hughes would also help to run the party on a day-to-day basis.
And while confirming that Nagamootoo did not chair Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, as is stipulated under the accord, Ramjattan said he would prefer not to offer further comment on the issue but wait for it to be addressed by the Prime Minister himself. Efforts by Stabroek News to make contact with Nagamootoo proved to be futile.
Stressing that he is certain that this issue would be worked out and that the Valentine’s Day accord is going to be adhered to, Ramjattan said it was the first official meeting and President Granger as Head of State would have had to address the ministers and he for one wanted to hear from the president.
“He [the president] had a number of things [to say] that I was very proud of, listening to him as to what he would like to see happening in this next government and for that reason it is clear to me that he had to speak because the man is our President,” Ramjattan said.
“We want this coalition to work. We know how fragile coalitions can be and we know how people out there who do not like the coalition will want to prick us with these little sensitive matters so that they can literally take us over the brink,” he continued.
“But we are not going to allow that. I wanted to see and hear the president at that first cabinet… but I am not going to make much beef out of that first one, absolutely none, because as a senior member and a senior vice-president, I wanted to hear from the president, his outline and his world perspective and he was very, very good. As a matter of fact, I thought it was masterfully done in the remarks to the cabinet,” Ramjattan added.
According to the February 14th Accord, the president shall, among other things, delegate the responsibilities of domestic national affairs and the chairing of Cabinet.
Other responsibilities delegated to the Prime Minister should have included recommending ministerial appointments and providing the organisational structures of ministries for the approval of the president; appointments of the heads of agencies and non-constitutional commissions with the required and agreed democratic mechanisms of consultation; and domestic security (Home Affairs).
The parties had also agreed that cabinet positions would be allocated on a 60/40 basis between APNU and the AFC, respectively.
