The joint parliamentary opposition parties have collected 8,000 signatures calling on Caricom leaders to recommend to President Bharrat Jagdeo that he address a number of issues affecting the country.
PNCR General Secretary Oscar Clarke yesterday told Stabroek News that the petition will be submitted to current Chairman of Caricom, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer at the secretariat of the 29th Meeting of the Conference of Caricom Heads of Government which opens today in that country. Clarke said the PNCR-IG, the AFC and GAP-ROAR collected the signatures over a short period last month.
The objective of the petition, is to urge the Jagdeo administration to meaningfully address certain issues.
These include the ending the suspension of the broadcast licence of CNS TV Channel Six; withdrawing sedition charges against former army officer Oliver Hinckson and releasing him from custody; and a significant reduction of the Value-Added Tax (VAT) as a short-term relief measure in the light of rising commodity prices. The parties are also calling for the urgent enactment of broadcast legislation, based on the recommendations contained in the Final Report of the Joint Committee on Radio Monopoly,
Non-Partisan Boards and Broadcasting Legislation; the licensing of private radio stations and equitable access by parliamentary parties to the state-owned media. The re-constitution of the Integrity Commission in accordance with the Integrity Commission Act No. 20 of 1997; an immediate end to the denial of the fundamental rights of the citizens of Guyana and the immediate enactment of the Freedom of Information Legislation also form part of the petition.
It calls on the leaders to use “Caricom’s collective influence in relation to Guyana’s affairs to facilitate the creation of an environment of peace and social stability, particularly as it relates to the advancement of the issue of Inclusive Governance/Shared Governance in Guyana, as a necessary prerequisite for progress, development and the security of Guyana and its citizens.”
The suspension of the Channel Six licence, the petition said, was but one example of the Jagdeo administration’s “continual contumelious and contumacious behaviour, since 2001.” Over the period, it added, there have been threats to, and the closure of HBTV Channel 9; threats to, and the undermining of the economic interests of VCT Channel 28 through the removal of a lottery broadcast contract from the station to the state-owned Channel 11 and, later, the cancellation of the TBN religious broadcasts in Guyana. It also referred to the vilification and physical abuse of Channel six owner CN Sharma by the governing party’s activists with no redress in the courts; and the removal of advertisements from the privately owned Stabroek News for more than 17 months. The ads were restored in April 2008.
The petition also mentioned the government’s refusal to proceed with consultations on inclusive governance in keeping with the May 6, 2003 communiqué and its acceptance of the National Development Strategy of 2000, which emphasized good governance as a prerequisite for national development. It pointed to the government’s reluctance to pursue the implementation of the Guyana Security Reform Plan in a holistic manner which includes linking police reform with actions in other areas of the security sector; strong linkages in particular with the ongoing programmes in justice reform and citizen security and a need to address the root causes of criminal and political violence, poverty and unemployment.
