PPP will not support initiative which supports discriminatory actions

Social cohesion workshop

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has said Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo declined an invitation to attend the Government of Guyana/UNDP Social Cohesion Strategic Plan 2017-2020 Validation Workshop held on Thursday, noting that the Party will not support any initiative that will validate the Government’s discriminatory actions under the guise of a social cohesion policy or strategy.

This communication in a letter was sent to United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator, Mikiko Tanaka, by Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira on behalf of Jagdeo. The letter outlined that none of the actions by the coalition Government in the past 22 months demonstrates a genuine desire and a political will to implement a social cohesion policy or to create a socially cohesive nation.

“The Government has shattered any modicum of trust and confidence, two ingredients critical to the development of a social cohesion policy and to create the basis for a socially cohesive nation,” the Opposition stated.

According to the PPP, since entering the 11th Parliament, it has called for national unity in the best interest of the Guyanese people and the nation, and had even gone on record that it would support any initiative that is in the best interest of our people and nation, as well as shall expose any that will harm the people and nation.

The UN diplomat was told that the PPP/Civic parliamentary Opposition has not played an obstructionist role as the previous combined parliamentary Opposition parties did in the 10th Parliament, but in fact has vigorously fought for greater participation of the PPP/C, civil society, faith-based and community-based groups in all national and region specific policy initiatives of the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change coalition Government.

To this end, the Opposition said it had even taken matters to the National Assembly of national importance and each one has been “shot down” by the Government with its one-seat majority.

“We have advocated and proposed initiatives to solve the many challenges the country faces and to build greater inclusivity, transparency and accountability in the legislature and other forum. However, the Government has rejected each and every one at every single forum available to it,” the letter states.

The PPP/C outlined some of the “vindictive and undemocratic” acts of the Government such as its termination of 1972 Amerindian Community Service Officers and hundreds of public servants on the basis of their ethnicity and political affiliation; its reckless and callous treatment of the sugar and rice sectors which will not only impact grievously on 17,000 sugar workers and thousands of rice farmers and their families but the consequences will be irretrievable to the economy and the entire nation for decades to come; and its consistent exclusion in any consultation process, of major national stakeholders and the inclusion of the “handpicked few” who pass their “political correctness” test.

The Opposition exposed the governing party for its more recent and almost daily onslaught on critical national stakeholders, in particular the Private Sector; its intimidation and interference in the judiciary, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Judicial Service Commission, and the non-appointment of Judges in violation of the Constitution; its interference in the Public Service Commission and the Ethnic Relations Commission; and its violation of constitutional provisions with regard to the appointment of the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission.

Moreover, the PPP/C added that Government’s anti-cohesion actions is further evident in its political interference in seven of the 10 Regional Democratic Councils won by the PPP/C in the 2015 General and Regional Elections, and the 48 of the 71 Local Authority Areas also won by the PPP/C in the March 2016 Local Government Elections; its non-appointment of the constitutional Local Government Commission; its exclusion of ethnic groups in the appointment of Government and State Boards, even on the Local Boards of Guardians which are region based; and its use of the Special Organised Crime Unit, an arm of the Guyana Police Force which was created to fight money laundering, and the administrative State Assets Recovery Unit, located in the Ministry  of the Presidency, to “witch-hunt” political opponents.

Against this backdrop, the parliamentary Opposition concluded, after reviewing the contents of the Draft Social Cohesion Strategy, that it excludes the key foundations of social cohesion – adherence to the constitutional provisions and human rights; equal access to goods and services provided by the State; and equal opportunity to jobs, contracts, education, health, housing.

As well as independence of the judiciary; adherence to parliamentary democracy in the Legislature; an open and enabling environment that allows for difference of views and an attitude of compromise; and, inclusion and representation in the body politic based on the multicultural multiethnic multi-religious composition of Guyanese society. “Without these essential ingredients for trust and confidence building being recognised and upheld by the Government, social cohesion is merely at best an academic veneer to legitimise the Government’s discriminatory and undemocratic governance of the nation,” the PPP/C asserted.

Nevertheless, the parliamentary Opposition insisted that it will not participate in any forum that is used by the Government, despite foreign support, to give credence to a social cohesion policy and strategy while the nation continues to be ripped apart by the undemocratic coalition Government.