PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo has reiterated that Government is prepared to engage in a healthy, open discussion, with the Opposition, about closer cooperation but it must be based on respect and what is good for the country.

He maintained that position in response to questions regarding political cooperation with the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), last Tuesday, at Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.

“What I said is that cooperation with the Opposition is desirable but I cannot put the development of Guyana on hold until I get that cooperation, because, if it is not forthcoming, I will not be fulfilling my duties to the people of this country,” President Jagdeo reminded.

He declared: “I was elected by them to improve their lives. So, while cooperation is desirable, I can’t wait forever for it to come. So, that is very different than saying I don’t want cooperation.”

President Jagdeo such closer cooperation must not come with baggage of the past and people seeing skeletons or phantoms in every cupboard.

He admitted that some may not be happy about his statement, saying: “They see any form of cooperation, on the part of the opposition, even engagement with the Government, as selling out, being very soft.”

President Jagdeo said those people “are out of tune with the time, because it is only through engagement that you are going to have an arrangement where Government and Opposition will be working in an optimal fashion for the development of the country.”

Last December, the Head of State, replying to the media at his Christmas Eve press conference, had said: “Whilst it is desirable to have political cooperation to move your country forward, if you have people who don’t want to participate in national life and who feel they have to find fault with everything, then I simply have to go forward.

“So, I am not going to wait to fix the sea defences until I have a meeting with (Robert) Corbin or someone else.”

More recently, President Jagdeo said that political parties can work together towards the common good of the country but it can only be sustainable if it is built on trust and common national interest.”

“And I believe we should find a way of working with other parties for the good of the country. But this arrangement, that we will have to put together to work together, can’t be built on weak foundations.”