A COALITION has worked in the past and will work going forward – a contention held by prime ministerial candidate of the Alliance of the coalesced A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), Moses Nagamootoo.It was also a contention that was rubbished by the leadership of the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C), since the ‘past 1964 coalition’ proposal he referred to pointed in the direction of the PPP/C itself. In an effort to stress the political weight of the Alliance, Nagamootoo, at the Alliance Saturday rally in Linden, highlighted that, in 1964, Dr Cheddi Jagan invited

Burnham to have the PPP and People’s National Congress (PNC) form a coalition government.
According to him, if a coalition was a good idea then, it is a good idea now.
Nagamootoo’s comments considered, the leadership of the ruling Party, with similar emphatic undertones, is now stressing the misinformation being peddled via Nagamootoo’s reasoning of successful coalition governments.
None other than the PPP/C presidential candidate and incumbent, President Donald Ramotar, in an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle, concluded that Nagamootoo’s account of history is most definitely affected by the fact that he was not a member of the Party in 1964.
“He was not with us in 1964 and in that year the question of a coalition, when the PPP proposed it, was pushed as a means of bringing some stability to the country and having a united front in the fight for independence,” he said.
Mr Ramotar added that the Opposition rejected the notion, despite the fact that it was one that was premised on a meritorious base.
“The coalition that the APNU+AFC is proposing now will destroy the country because it is based on a grab for power,” he said.
The President underscored the fact that weeks of negotiating an Alliance only resulted in the details of who gets what position being hammered out, as opposed to policies, programmes and a legislative agenda to improve the lives of the Guyanese people.
“It was nothing to do with the welfare of the Guyanese people,” he posited.
HISTORY NOT HIS-STORY
President Ramotar maintained that the course of events that characterised Guyana’s journey to independence, peace and progress is a matter of “history” and facts cannot be changed to reflect ‘his-story’ (Nagamootoo’s story).
Records from Red House, touted as a credible source of the political history, indicate that, like the PPP/C presidential candidate said on June 6 of 1964, a coalition was proposed by Dr Jagan, in an effort to bring peace. He proposed a PPP-PNC coalition government with an equal number of ministries. However, the then PNC leader, Forbes Burnham, rejected the invitation.
In the previous year, the Constitutional Conference opened in London and all the demands of the PPP were rejected by the British which, influenced by the USA’s Kennedy Administration, imposed Proportional Representation as the new electoral system. The British also decided that independence would be delayed and that elections would be held in 1964.

In the same year, 1963, the Police raided the headquarters of the PNC and found a great deal of arms and ammunition and documents detailing assassination plans for PPP leaders. One of the documents was the infamous X-13 Plan, which detailed the plans of violence by the PNC against the PPP. During May, PPP leaders were attacked by Opposition supporters while leaving the Legislative Assembly. On June 10, Dr. Jagan himself was attacked by a vicious PNC mob while he was leaving the Assembly.
In 1962, the PNC, The United Force (TUF) and other groups mounted a protest against the budget which was presented by the PPP Government. In the process, rioters supportive of these organisations burned a large portion of the business district of Georgetown.
In an atmosphere of strikes, riots and racial disturbances, as well as agitations for independence, Mr Ramotar made it clear that a united band of Guyanese was viewed as the best option to move the country forward – a move made under very different circumstances as those under which the Cummingsburg Accord was inked.
The PPP General Secretary, Clement Rohee, also added his voice to the fray.
“What he is talking about from the 1961 to 1964 period has no relevance to what is taking place now, which is a marriage of convenience for the sake of political power. What Dr Jagan was speaking about was a coalition to bring about peace and stability in the country in light of racial violence and turmoil. At the same time, we were dealing with the challenges of moving towards independence,” he said.
Rohee was firm in making clear that Nagamootoo’s comments reflect a level of “political degeneration” that is unacceptable, particularly as they evidence a distortion of historical facts.

(By Vanessa Narine)