No follow-up consultations between president, opposition leader
Leader of the Opposition Robert Corbin is still awaiting meaningful consultations with President Bharrat Jagdeo about confirming Acting Commissioner of Police Henry Greene to the top position of the Guyana Police Force two months after they met to first discuss the subject.
Greene has been acting as police commissioner for just over two years.
Jagdeo and Corbin met on June 17, 2008 at the Office of the President to discuss the appointment as well as other matters related to the service commissions.
Asked about the follow-up discussions with the President, Corbin told Stabroek News that since that meeting at which he had indicated he would like to discuss Greene’s appointment further after he had received a formal communication from the Office of the President, they had heard nothing more.
“I am waiting on the President to begin the formal talks,” he said, adding that there was a constitutional procedure which should be upheld whereby the President should write to him, telling him what he wants to do. Since the informal conversation in which the head of state had indicated that he would like to appoint Greene he had had “no missive from the President.”
There had been some speculation that the President might have been thinking about appointing some other person to the post of Commissioner of Police but Corbin told Stabroek News that when asked Jagdeo only mentioned appointing Greene.
Asked whether he would support the appointment, he said that he would prefer not to comment on the matter until he had had a formal communication from the President.
Based on his conversation with the President, he had expected that they would have met the following week once he had been officially notified, but “nothing has happened.” The President’s attitude and lack of follow-up, he said, was true to form and the meeting in his opinion was just another exercise in propaganda and the President was not serious about consultation.
Greene was appointed Acting Commissioner of Police in July 2006 and according to Article 211 of the constitution, “the Commissioner of Police and every Deputy Commissioner of Police shall be appointed by the President acting after meaningful consultation with the Leader of the Opposition and Chairperson of the Police Service Commission after the Chairperson has consulted with the other members of the commission.”
Their June meeting had been held prior to the Caricom Heads of Government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda, and the President had also raised the issue of national participation in Carifesta X which Guyana is now hosting.
One of Jagdeo’s main concerns, he said, was about creating the right climate to ensure people were happy, and he had wanted to assure the Caricom heads meeting that the opposition PNCR would support the regional cultural extravaganza.
Corbin at the June meeting had been assured by Jagdeo that the government had the capacity to deal with many of the issues, including the level of criminal activity which threatened the safety of the environment.
He said that it was the party’s belief that the President had only called the meeting because of the marches and demonstrations which the party had held at the time to seek redress on a number of issues Corbin had raised with him.
Since then there had been no protest marches and demonstrations. (Miranda La Rose)