MUCH interest is being shown, and quite understandably, in what has mushroomed into an open political confrontation between leader of the People’s National Congress/Reform, Mr. David Granger, and Ms. Vanessa Kissoon, a representative of the party in the National Assembly.Recognised in the media for her militancy when she came to be tagged during the “Linden disturbances” linked to new electricity rates, Kissoon’s subsequent internal political problems are linked with a decision by the PNCR General Secretary, Oscar Clarke, to suspend her as the party’s Region 10 representative and to subsequently appoint as co-ordinator former MP, Sandra Adams, an ex-chairperson of that Upper Demerara-Berbice Region.
The related factor of more than discourtesy demonstrated against the PNCR’s General Secretary when he visited Linden and was denied access to the party’s regional office by a refusal to hand over the relevant keys, heightened the disaffections that had apparently been preceded by internal correspondence.
When matters worsened by a decision of the party’s leader, Mr. Granger, to suspend Ms. Kissoon, she retorted with a sharp rebuke, made public by her. The essence of her contention is that he had no powers under the PNCR’s constitution to suspend her having not been responsible for her appointment.
Ms. Kissoon claimed in a letter to Mr. Granger that a statement made public by the party about her suspension was contrary to a June 24 letter she had received from him as party leader. However, the party’s constitution states under Article 27 (‘interpretation clause’) that “a power to appoint implies a power to suspend, dismiss or revoke.”
But according to Ms. Kissoon’s interpretation that clause would apply to employees of the PNCR and she was decidedly “not an employee” but an elected regional representative of the party.
This reasoning also explains why she was chosen as a parliamentarian for the party, based on the official results of the November 2011 general elections-regional and national.
A most relevant question arising from this confrontation between Ms. Kissoon and party leader Granger is: For how long they would persist with this undesirable status quo without making a caricature of rules-based ‘party democracy’ and the established norms and legitimacy of parliamentary representation.
This development has revived reflections on the circumstances that had given birth to the Alliance For Change (AFC) when two former MPs of People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Mr. Moses Nagamootoo and Mr. Ramjattan, then separately Mr. Raphael Trotman of the PNCR chose to team up and formed what became the Alliance For Change (AFC).
Since together the PNCR and AFC control a ONE-seat majority in the 65-member Parliament and now grossly abusing it to destroy Guyana’s impressive economic and social infrastructure, the question that arises is whether Ms. Kissoon is contemplating to adopt a new political posture as an “independent” in the National Assembly ?
Or, is someone set to swallow the proverbial “humble pie”-Granger or Kissoon?