This government has a better record
PNC/R open to ideas on
inclusive governance -Hoyte
The People's National Congress REFORM (PNC/R) is open to ideas on inclusive
governance and is committed to a restart of the inter-party dialogue once the
agreements reached so far in the process are implemented.
"We never have closed minds in the People's National Congress
REFORM," Leader of the Opposition and the PNC/R, Desmond Hoyte, told
reporters yesterday at a press conference hosted by the party.
"We are convinced that the very word 'power-sharing' raises hackles. The
moment you raise it a lot of people shy away particularly opposition
parties," Hoyte said.
He stated: "We are not averse to some kind of inclusive government which
is not the winner-take-all situation that we have and we said so in our
submission to the Constitution Reform Commission. We advocated some form of
inclusivity without using the word power-sharing."
He stated that a solution must be arrived at in consultations with persons
representing all sections of society. "I think it is clear that the
system we have is not working, that serious thought has to be given to a
better system; one which commands the confidence and support of the majority
of people in this country. This calls for us to put our heads together and
come up with something that is workable," he said.
"What you find normally is that people put forward a thesis: let there be
power sharing but when you try to delve behind the shibboleth you find
nothing. Most have not thought through the policy."
Hoyte noted that there have been calls that the dialogue should be restarted
for the good of the country.
He referred to the letter written by him to President Bharrat Jagdeo in March
pointing out that decisions taken during the process were not implemented.
"People were getting very restive and [were] questioning the good faith
of the dialoguers-Jagdeo's good faith and my good faith and wondering whether
we weren't wasting time and fooling people," he said.
He stated the party took the position to maintain a pause in the dialogue
until the decisions arrived at were implemented.
He said the persons who are calling for a restart of the process are doing so
as though they were not aware of the issues.
Dialogue impasse a
'national nonsense'
Peace councils prepared to tackle East Coast strife if given
support -Donald Trotman
Retired judge Donald Trotman is of the view that the current impasse in the
dialogue process between President Bharrat Jagdeo and leader of the PNC/R,
Desmond Hoyte is nothing short of "a national nonsense."
Trotman, who is the president of the United Nations Association of Guyana (UNAG)
Community Peace Project, questioned how peace could be introduced and prosper
in Guyana if other parties and persons from civil society were not allowed to
participate in a dialogue which was now only for the "deaf and the
dumb."
Trotman was speaking at the closing ceremony of the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA)-funded phase of the first stage of the project,
convened at the Georgetown Club.
Through this funding UNAG established ten community peace projects in Region
Two, Adventure to Devonshire; Region Three, Windsor Forest to Meten-Meer-Zorg;
Region Four, Georgetown and from Victoria to Enmore; and Region Six, Number 19
Village to Auchlyne. Prior to the setting up the ten groups, there were three
existing groups in Berbice, Essequibo and Demerara.
Trotman said that the groups had given their time and energy to integrate the
ideas of the United Nations and the objectives of UNAG so that persons in the
different communities could live in harmony.
He said that they were also working on reaffirming persons' faith in
fundamental human rights regardless of race or gender.
He added that the country's present state was "deplorable" and there
were many parties and sectors that did not come out when things were peaceful
to give support to programmes designated to peace building. He was of the
opinion that the regional bodies and the municipalities having regard to what
happened in the country should set up special committees to deal with peace
building.
Trotman said that the UNAG committees had been working in the communities and
have been involved in family disputes, misunderstandings between neighbourhood
democratic councils (NDCs) and residents, land disputes and landlord and
tenants disputes. He said that recently the councillors had been engaged in a
special reconciliation programme. "...You will notice that most of the
areas if not all,... straddle ethnic barriers and so this programme of
reconciliation is having inter-cultural, inter- communities activities. [This
is happening] particularly in areas where there have been ...racial, ethnic
and cultural differences, like in the days of the sixties," Trotman said.
Giving an example of a particular dispute the councillors had been able to
settle, Trotman, who is a member of the Victoria/Enmore Peace Council, said
that a resident of Victoria went into Enmore and complained that he had been
violently assaulted by a group of persons. He said that they brought the
parties together along with other residents in different villages and kept a
meeting in an effort to prevent such an incident from happening again.
Over the past few months there have been numerous confrontations between the
two ethnic groups living on the
East Coast Demerara. Last week there was an incident where
residents of Buxton had gone into the village of Strathspey
and assaulted residents after one of their villagers had been nabbed by the
police for allegedly robbing a resident of Strathspey.
This was put to Trotman and he was asked what his organisation would do to try
to quell the disturbances in the villages. He had this to say, "We will
move into those areas if we get funding... financial funding as well as
support, moral and open support from national leaders, government and
opposition... We will be able to tackle the problems and hope to resolve them
in those areas. If the government and opposition leadership come out in full
support of our project and peace activities that will go a far way in
resolving those problems. So far they have not done so even though we have
been calling upon them and inviting them to our activities."
Vice-President of UNAG, Dr Martin Boodhoo,
reviewing the project, said that if there was a time for stability and peace
in Guyana, "it is now more than ever!"
He pointed out that aside from the unwarranted and unjustified threats to the
country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, the most intimidating hazard
in Guyana today was the instability and a general feeling of uncertainty and
insecurity. "With few exceptions, there is an atmosphere of mistrust,
unfair treatment and being short-changed," Dr Boodhoo said.
Dr Boodhoo said that Guyana was one of the many countries disrupted by social,
ethnic and political conflicts, which wasted resources and destroyed lives.
He noted that UNAG, during the past four years, had organised programmes for
Guyanese adults and children on the need and advantages of avoiding conflict
and settling disputes peacefully by way of organised community efforts rather
than resorting to the formal judicial system, which he said more often than
not was costly, inadequate and unable to resolve conflict expeditiously.
The process is known as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and has been
practised by communities, especially rural communities in many countries
around the world.
It is projected that in the second phase the other councils would focus mainly
on strengthening and deepening mediation skills and the peaceful resolution of
conflicts.
Head of CIDA in Guyana, Murray Kam, in brief remarks, said that UNAG
had applied for more funding for the second phase of its peace project and
revealed that while his superiors overseas had not contacted him he was
optimistic that there will be more funding.
Friday July 12, 2002