‘We are sounding the death knell of winner-take-all politics. Never again must 51percent behave like 100 percent and 49 percent be treated as zero.’
Before a capacity crowd, opposition coalition APNU was formally launched last evening at the Ocean View International Hotel Convention Centre, with the promise to change the country’s political landscape, but without the unveiling of a leadership team as had been expected.
“A Partnership for National Unity” (APNU) pledged to practise “a politics of consensus” that would transform the country’s political landscape.
The party’s launch came after APNU’s June 24 announcement that the Joint Opposition Political Parties (JOPP) were going to contest under the banner of APNU, with David Granger as its presidential candidate. At that event, the media was told that “major announcements” would be made at the official launching, but this proved not to be the case.
The only announcement of note was that since the June 24 launch, three groups have joined the PNCR, WPA, the GAP and the NFA as the parties forming APNU. The three new groups are: the Guyana People’s Partnership (whose leadership has been handed over from Peter Ramsaroop to Vaughn Phillips), the Guyana National Congress, led by Samuel Hamer and the Guyana Association of Local Authorities headed by veteran politician Llewellyn John.
Granger had told this newspaper that while the prime ministerial candidate would not be announced, a leadership team would be put forward. However, this was not done and there was no announcement last evening when this would take place.
Addressing the gathering on the evening of his 66th birthday, Granger pledged that “co-operation, collaboration and concord” would be the watchwords of his administration. He said that the current government had failed Guyanese in several ways and his intention was to establish an inclusionary democracy that would bring transformation now and for future generations. He noted that while the PPP/C administration has been campaigning on the theme of “continuity” this is not what the country needs.
“The PPP has failed us because the entire set of values that they possess is wrong. Its attitude to trade unions is wrong, its attitude to the private media is wrong, its attitude to University of Guyana is wrong, its attitude to the Public Service is wrong. Its attitude to the Foreign Service is wrong. Its attitude to the National Insurance Scheme is wrong. Its attitude to public security is wrong. Its attitude to ethnic relations is wrong,” Granger said. “The PPP has failed because it cannot understand that a nation is not a plantation,” he said to resounding applause.
Granger, dressed in a black shirt-jac suit, said that there needed to be a new covenant between the citizenry and the government and pledged that APNU will make this a reality. “We believe passionately that all Guyanese are entitled to the benefits of a good life in the country of their birth,” he said. “The foundation for such a life rests on a sound education for all, satisfactory employment, economic opportunity, individual equality, political empowerment, a sustainable environment, good governance, national unity, public security and social protection for the vulnerable; for the young and the very old,” he said.
WPA co-leader Rupert Roopnaraine said that the APNU differed from all previous coalitions proposed and constructed in the past 50 years, since “for the very first time in our history we are in the process of constructing an open partnership.”
He said that since announcing its formation last month, the partnership had gained momentum but that it still had a far way to go. “We are not yet nearly as diverse and as wide as we need to be but know this: APNU is a dynamic, expanding partnership. Together we must and will create a genuinely inclusive partnership where all constituencies can enter and represent themselves,” he said.
He appealed to women across race and across class, young people, pensioners and working people among others to join the partnership. “We must build a country where there are no losers, where every citizen has equitable access to the resources of our land,” he said.
Addressing the question of who could join the APNU, Roopnaraine pledged that whoever joined the partnership will have their voices heard. “Political parties, established organisations, community based organisations that come into this partnership will have their representatives in the highest leadership,” Roopnaraine said, noting that individual citizens can also join.
APNU’s major aim, Roopnaraine said, is to bring national reconciliation. “APNU when elected with the majority of your votes will immediately move to establish a government of national unity. APNU will invite the other parties, which have won a sufficiency of votes from the electorate, to participate proportionately in the government at the national and regional levels,” he said.
“We are sounding the death knell of winner-take-all politics. Never again must 51percent behave like 100 percent and 49 percent treated as zero,” he said. Never again must our election be felt as the victory of one race over the other…,” he said, as the audience applauded vociferously.
PNCR member Carl Greenidge pledged that an APNU-led administration would institute constitutional reform based on “discussion, consultation and consensus”. Reading from APNU’s Charter, which was circulated last evening, Greenidge said the reforms under an APNU administration will remove “the scope of abuses and excesses carried out with impunity by the executive and the president, in particular. The Charter briefly introduces the main ideas, beliefs and principles, which inform and guide the actions, policies and practices of APNU.
Among the proposed constitutional reforms Greenidge said are: “the separation of the functions of the Head of State (the President) from those of Head of Government (the Prime Minister), strict separation of powers between the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary”, and “the institution of pre-election protocols similar to those existing in India, which would restrain the incumbent government from abusing state resources for ‘electioneering’ purposes.”
Greenidge, a former finance minister, also announced several measures that APNU would implement to create economic prosperity. He also identified what role the State will play in an APNU government.
APNU will now move to hold regional launches and one is set for Linden on July 22 and another for New Amsterdam on July 23. A rally is also scheduled for July 29 at the Square of the Revolution.
