Working against national and people’s interests

PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar’s contention that Government has never entered into talks with Opposition nor stakeholders with maximum positions is an understatement of the greatest proportions.

The issues here are of national import and interests and should not be about the self-seeking interests of the few people comprising the Opposition ‘leaders’. Yet the compromises that the latter grouping want to extract from the Government always address their concern for self-aggrandisement and power through the back door to Cabinet, at the expense of the Guyanese people and national interests.

The ‘no-confidence’ motion, proudly brought to Parliament by the AFC – spearheaded by Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan and supported by the PNC/APNU was the zenith of the reckless, foolish, puerile, irresponsible and unpatriotic acts, among many such instances, that the joint Opposition has perpetrated on this nation during this 10th Parliament.

As he observed last Friday during his weekly press briefing, in every instance of talks with the Opposition, the Government has come to the table with its positions and has reduced those to minimum positions, making concessions; whereas the combined Opposition parliamentary parties have held on to their maximum positions, which are almost always anti-people, anti-developmental and self-serving.

Engaging A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) in talks is always greatly challenging for Government, because the two parties seemingly never come to the table with conciliation and putting the nation first as of paramount importance.

Instead they are always confrontational and approach any bipartisan dialogue with extreme positions that are skewed in their own interests and not reflective of the people’s welfare.

The Head of State’s most recent invitation for talks, since the prorogation of Parliament has been ignored by the combined Opposition, with much glee and chest-beating on the latter’s part, as if they have won a great victory.

As usual the defeated ‘opponents’ are the people of this land, whom they have described at different times as “collateral damage”, mortgaged to invest in their various ploys for entering the executive offices through the back door.

The ‘no-confidence’ motion, proudly brought to Parliament by the AFC – spearheaded by Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan and supported by the PNC/APNU was the zenith of the reckless, foolish, puerile, irresponsible and unpatriotic acts, among many such instances, that the joint Opposition has perpetrated on this nation during this 10th Parliament.

According to the President, the prorogating of Parliament was intended to pave the way for greater dialogue among political parties, while keeping the 10th Parliament alive to address the critically important issues currently before the National Assembly; as well as to continue, unhindered, developmental programmes on stream in the country.
APNU Leader, Brigadier (rtd.) David Granger’s allegation that the Government has not granted any concessions during talks with the two Opposition parties was dismissed summarily by the President, who provided examples of many instances where the Government, even at the expense of its own and the people’s interests, made many compromises with their original positions, with these facts supported by clear evidence.

According to a report in this newspaper, the President said: “It is the other way around….it was not me, but the Opposition that has taken these (maximum) positions…the agreements that we have reached, there haven’t been that many, but it’s been we (the current Administration) who have been making the concessions.
“…these things are public knowledge; these things are known….I have not been hard or holding so strongly to my grounds.”
As it relates to the latter, the Head of State pointed out that the only instances that he held his ground were on areas he felt strongly about, and even here, there were concessions; for example as it relates to the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and the Countering of the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) (Amendment) Bill.
But while the Donald Ramotar administration, and previous PPP/C Governments have approached the table for talks with genuine commitment to nation-building and putting the people’s interests first; the Opposition, conversely, have never displayed any such inclinations.
Government and other stakeholders are acting and reaching out to the Opposition on the supposition and premise that the latter are interested in working for the general good of the nation when the reality is that all the Opposition leaders – individually and jointly, are concerned about are their own ambitions to access Cabinet; their self-aggrandisement, self-empowerment and self-enrichment; and in Moses Nagamootoo’s and Khemraj Ramjattan’s case, to subjugate and take revenge against the leaders of the PPP/C, whom they envy and hate to the nth degree because they covet the leadership positions the latter occupy.

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