The leaders of the Alliance For Change (AFC) said yesterday that they are preparing a programme to facilitate a coalition platform which will include opposition parties, members of economic, labour and civil society groups and defectors from the PPP/C administration to contest next year’s election.
During a press conference at the Sidewalk Café yesterday, the party’s three principals — Raphael Trotman, Khemraj Ramjattan and Sheila Holder — said the AFC remained committed to forming alliances and that a recent visit by Barbadian political strategist Hartley Henry was just a way of kick-starting this process.
The party leadership, however, stressed that no formal coalition talks have started as yet.
“We are committed to the principle of alliances to contest the next election,” AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan said. “However, for a political alliance to be effective, it must be a partnership between groups of political, economic, labour and civil society organisations which share and subscribe to a set of common beliefs.”
According to him, the party will present a paper on the objectives of such an arrangement over the next few weeks. “We hope this will stimulate healthy debate and public discussion on issues such as the objectives, criteria for participation and the principles, policies and practices that should apply to such a partnership,” the AFC Chairman said.
It was also pointed out that the party’s membership will have to ratify a decision to go into an alliance.
Party leader Trotman told reporters, “No alliance talks have begun,” but “there is a lot of chatter”, with people meeting at various forums informally. Regarding Henry’s recent trip to the country, Trotman said the AFC had invited him to visit Guyana and said he (Henry) had come on a fact-finding mission and asked to meet members of the opposition and civil society.
“It is no secret that we are also speaking to groups within the PPP to defect,” Trotman said. “To us this is a national issue. And so if it is that we have to speak to good people within the PNC we will do so.
If it is that we have to speak to good people within the PPP we are prepared to do so; the WPA and all other organisations in Guyana to build this bus…,” he added.
Ramjattan said that the decision to forge an alliance was something that was now in its preliminary stages and several factors had to be taken into consideration before it was confirmed.
“This is just the start of the process. Getting the bus to move,” he said.
Vice Chairman Holder pointed out that the party had always been committed to alliances and noted that external factors were influencing the current move. “The international and regional realities cannot escape us. We’ve been seeing the paradigm shift taking place in Britain, in Suriname and in Trinidad and Tobago,” she said.
Ramjattan had previously expressed concern about the AFC forging an alliance with the PNCR. Asked about this, he said: “there are some international factors… I have come around to the position, that if you want, largely, to get the largest block, there must be a larger block than the AFC,” he added.
Asked how the party intended to deal with the perception that PNCR Leader Robert Corbin may be an obstacle to a successful opposition alliance, Ramjattan said there will always be the perception that certain personalities would be negative for the larger efforts of advancing alliances. He opined that the way to go was to negotiate the best set of leaders to work along with.
Trotman said this was not an alliance of personalities but one of principles and programmes. He said the programme to take Guyana forward will first have to be outlined and persons will then fit themselves in.
Questioned if the AFC naming of presidential and prime ministerial candidates were still relevant when the party was talking about forging an alliance, Trotman said the party intended to nominate its candidate, to lead the proposed coalition. “We will reserve the right to nominate our person to be the presidential candidate in a grand alliance. But at the end of the day, we recognise that the constituent members of that alliance will have to meet and agree. But certainly we will propose our nominee as, we believe, every member should have the right… to propose nominees. And at the end of it, if we keep Guyana first and foremost, we will make the best decision…”
