–Dr Jagdeo highlights lack of trust between both parties
WHILE both opposition forces clamored for coalition governance, the power imbalance in the previous APNU+AFC administration has dealt a “major blow” to this form of alliance, according to People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.
During a press conference at the party’s headquarters on Thursday last, Dr Jagdeo, who is also the country’s Vice President, pointed out how the Alliance For Change (AFC) in the previous government was gagged by the A Partnership for National Unity/People’s National Congress Reform (APNU/PNC/R).
While the leadership of both the PNC/R and AFC said that discussions of a potential partnership will be discussed after the parties hold their internal elections, the current ‘mud-slinging’ has seemingly sullied this plan.
Attorney, Nigel Hughes is now steering the AFC and according to Dr Jagdeo, while he is being painted as a potential consensus presidential candidate, PNC/R Leader, Aubrey Norton has rained on the parade of the smaller political force.
Norton has made it clear that the consensus presidential candidate must come from his party and not a political force that has “never received 15 per cent of the votes in this country.”
Recently, Norton rubbished the talk of Hughes being the consensus candidate, and said, “I believe that as the largest political party in the coalition, the PNC/R is entitled to this role. Which political party, having more than 90 per cent of the opposition’s support, would relinquish its power to one with five or 10 per cent? It makes no sense. So, when I speak of a consensual candidate, I’m referring to a consensual candidate within the People’s National Congress Reform.”
According to Dr Jagdeo, the lack of trust between both forces bloomed from the steep turn coalition politics took under the former APNU+AFC government.
The PPP General Secretary said, “They dealt a major blow to coalition politics in the last government. That is why nobody can trust each other now.”
Although the “Cummingsburg Accord” signed by the APNU and AFC on February 14, 2015, saw the parties uniting in a coalition that would see them win the 2015 elections, the style of governance, when the parties took office, showed that this agreement was just a piece of paper, Dr Jagdeo highlighted.
Notably, that seven-year partnership officially ended on December 31, 2022, as was announced by former AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan.
The PPP General Secretary then pointed out how even the former Prime Minister, Moses Nagamotoo, held a minute portfolio.
While highlighting the corruption allegations that were the trademark stamp of the AFC while they were in governance with the APNU, Dr Jagdeo said, “…They’ve demonstrated one thing that no paper is worth anything that you sign up on before the elections. You can make all sorts of promises.”
Notably, the AFC’s performance in office has been heavily criticised as many saw the party as a feature player in the poor economic policies of the former administration.
It was only last year that Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., accused former AFC Leader Ramjattan of using sugar workers to further his political agenda.
Nandlall made the remarks on his Facebook programme, Issues in the News, during which he shed light on the contentious history between the APNU+AFC, and sugar workers, with allegations of broken promises and neglect.
“From the moment the APNU+AFC got a one-seat majority in the National Assembly after the 2011 elections, they started to attack the sugar workers. In fact, it is sugar workers, I believe, that’s allowed them to get the one-seat majority.
“It is the sugar workers that allowed them to get that one-seat majority. Khemraj Ramjattan went into the sugar belt, they went into the order lines, and they used to speak to the workers and made all sorts of promises to them. And the workers believed them and gave them the votes,” Nandlall said.
The Attorney General further detailed that despite the promises made by Ramjattan and his party during the 2015 elections, the coalition government closed multiple sugar estates, leaving thousands of workers jobless.
He highlighted instances where Ramjattan, as part of the APNU+AFC government, allegedly promised support for the sugar industry and assured workers that it was “too big to fail.”
However, Nandlall contended that within the first year of the coalition government’s tenure, they closed the Wales Estate, leaving over 2,100 sugar workers unemployed. Subsequently, Enmore, Rose Hall, and Skeldon estates were also shuttered, leaving over 7,000 workers jobless.
