Several days after President Irfaan Ali disclosed that he had invited all former presidents to a meeting on December 15th, Stabroek News still cannot confirm whether President David Granger will be present.
This newspaper has been unable to make contact with Granger and Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon yesterday said that he does not know whether the former President has received an invitation or intends to attend the proposed meeting.
“You’ll have to call him for that,” he told Stabroek News when contacted yesterday.
On Friday, Ali announced that a meeting had been scheduled to discuss national development.
“It will be an open-flow meeting where we bring together all the former presidents. I think that it will be an opportunity for us to continue to share ideas, generate ideas to talk about how we see Guyana’s development from our different perspectives; and then to work out a model and a framework of how we engage in the future and how we have continuous contribution,” he said on the sidelines of the launch of the Canada Guyana Chamber of Commerce at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
The living former presidents are Bharrat Jagdeo, who is now Vice President, Donald Ramotar, Samuel Hinds and Ali’s immediate predecessor, Granger.
Former President Ramotar has already confirmed receipt of his invitation and said he looks forward to what he explained will be a working lunch engagement with Guyana’s new President.
He said that he remains optimistic that Granger would form an active part of the engagement, putting the country ahead of any personal feelings he may harbour towards Ali or his PPP/C.
Sources close to the PPP/C have also told this newspaper that it is “a given” that both former presidents Hinds and Jagdeo would be present.
The meeting is being touted as a representation of Ali’s commitment to inclusive governance.
At his inauguration, Ali had noted the PPP/C’s pledge to pursue inclusionary Constitutional Governance in its manifesto and emphasised his intention to see implementation.
“To do so will require certain constitutional reforms which …will be formulated in consultation with the people. We will conduct a national conversation in which all ideas will contend, and all voices will be heard,” he had said then.
Notably the President has however refused to engage in any discussion with the Opposition Leader who holds a Constitutional post.
Harmon had previously made public a letter he wrote to Ali on September 24th to request copies of all agreements signed during the visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Guyana.
“This is, of course, a matter of national importance and accordingly I shall be grateful if, at your earliest convenience, you would be so kind as to furnish me with all agreements, oral or written which were concluded between the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and the United States of America after August 2, 2020,” the letter reads.
Two months have since elapsed and according to Harmon, there has so far been no acknowledgment of the letter.
“He has been very rude,” he said of Ali.
Instead of responding to Harmon’s letter, Ali told senior journalists in October that the Opposition leader must first “fix the misleading narrative” he has provided to the people of Guyana.
“Mr. Harmon must be honest enough to go out to the public and say the PPP has been legitimately elected and it is the recognized Government of Guyana and then we’ll talk,” Ali said in the 30-minute interview published by the Office of the President.
Harmon has repeatedly stressed that the constitution is clear that consultation between the President and his Office is necessary with no preconditions.
“The constitution specifically requires that there be consultation with the Leader of the Opposition by the President in the appointment of a number of constitutional office holders. No precondition is attached,” he pointed out, while identifying several offices, including that of the Chancellor and Chief Justice, and the Ombudsman.
