President Ramotar says ‘he is turning the argument around’

PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar yesterday smirked when asked to respond to Leader of the main Opposition, Brigadier (rtd.) David Granger who described the current administration as a ‘Ramotarian’ autocracy and not a true democracy.

Granger, at the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNCR) 18th Biennial Congress, which opened on Friday said: “The PPP/C (People’s Progressive Party/Civic), rather than pursue a consensual policy of inclusionary democracy and cooperation with the Opposition as prescribed in the Constitution, adopted a posture of confrontation.”
“The governance crisis has been aggravated by the PPP/C’s reluctance to acknowledge its minority status in the National Assembly and to join the majority in the movement towards establishing a Government of national unity”.
“Progress has been impeded by the Central Government’s authoritarian attitude…this is not democracy at all. It is autocracy. It is a ‘Ramotarian’ autocracy.”
The main Opposition Leader was at the time addressing the PNCR’s push for a “one-nation” approach to governance.
Pointing out that Mr. Granger was speaking to his party base; the Head of State dismissed these statements as not being grounded in fact.
“He is turning the argument around…it is the other way around…the Opposition Leader was speaking to a crowd of supporters and he is obviously trying to pump them up, but he is not correct in what he is saying,” Mr. Ramotar said at a news conference held at State House.

PRACTISED INCLUSION
The Head of State referenced the several invitations for engagements and actual engagements that have taken place during his tenure as evidence of the emphasis that continues to be placed on the principle of inclusive democracy.
“We have always been seeking to have closer cooperation. We have been seeking to have more inclusion. Sometimes, we thought we had it and then we realised the Opposition had changed its views,” he said.
According to him, his door is always open for dialogue. “We have been reaching out and working very hard to have more inclusionary governance, more participation and more cooperation,” Mr. Ramotar said.
The President highlighted the lengths to which he has gone to include both Opposition parties in the Government’s developmental thrust by referencing the release of “commercially confidential” documents on the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project – all in the interest of having meaningful dialogue on a major transformational project for Guyana.
“We are not the ones that have been spurning the opportunities for dialogue,” he posited.
The President reiterated that the notion that his Government operates in an authoritarian manner is one that is far from the truth.
“To say that we have been acting in an authoritarian way is very far from the truth. I don’t know how anyone living in this country can say that. One would have to be extremely biased to say something like that, but like I said Mr. Granger was speaking to a partisan crowd,” Mr. Ramotar concluded.

(By Vanessa Narine)