Facing criticism of their “slow motion” efforts to end the suspension of parliament, leaders of the opposition APNU and AFC yesterday rejected claims that momentum is being lost with APNU Leader David Granger saying that resources needs to be mobilized for a sustained campaign.
“At the partnership level, we need to mobilise the resources needed for a sustained campaign,” Granger told Stabroek News yesterday. “In order to increase tempo, we need to increase resources.”
On Saturday, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), a constituent of APNU, called for a more vigorous campaign by the opposition against the suspension of parliament, cautioning that momentum is being lost. “What is evident is that there is urgent need for the opposition to communicate to the Guyanese public an Action Plan or Road Map for making the Government so uncomfortable that it would be forced to relent and reconvene Parliament any time soon,” the WPA said in a statement.
The party said that it strongly favours a more vigorous campaign by the opposition against the prolongation of the proroguing of Parliament. “Momentum is being lost and reaction to the Govern-ment’s derailing of the No-Confidence Motion appears to be protest in slow motion,” it said.
On November 10, President Donald Ramotar suspended Parliament triggering the country’s worst political crisis since the 2011 general elections. His government has not been able to mobilise support for its move. The AFC, whose motion of no confidence against the government was thwarted by the prorogation, and APNU have both insisted that there will be no talks with the Ramotar administration unless Parliament is recalled.
Contacted yesterday by Stabroek News on the WPA’s position, Granger said that the matter was discussed at the last APNU executive council meeting two weeks ago and the WPA is aware that resources are needed for a sustained campaign. He said that these resources need to be mobilised. “We are now in our first phase,” he said. “We are mobilizing resources.”
The Leader of the Opposition denied that they are losing momentum. “The opposition is gaining momentum,” he stressed.
Granger stated that as an independent party within APNU, the WPA is free to mount its own rallies and other activities once this is done within the policy framework set out by the coalition. He pointed out that APNU is doing work on the ground noting that he was in Essequibo on Saturday while another team went to Berbice. “Outreach is taking place as well…it’s not a Georgetown-based issue,” the APNU leader asserted.
He noted that they have been picketing for two months now outside the Office of the President. The picketing had started out as a protest for local government elections. “We are continuing to maintain that pattern of protest,” Granger said while adding that they are also widening the circle of those APNU is in contact with including civil society, the business community, the international community, trade unions and so on.
As it relates to starting the second phase of their campaign, Granger said that they have to be conscious of what the people want and pointed out that this is the Christmas season and many persons will be looking to make an extra dollar. The important thing is to put pressure on the PPP and not on the people, he said. “The important thing is to call the PPP back to its senses and to bring an end to the prorogation,” he said.
In terms of increasing the momentum, Granger said that APNU has plans to do so but declined to disclose what the plans are. “As we acquire resources we will move into the second phase,” he said. “(The) WPA knows what we doing now is not the total plan.”
Not wholly
Meantime, AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan told Stabroek News that the AFC is not wholly in agreement with the WPA’s views. “We respect the WPA’s right to express its individual party’s views on the present Parliamentary impasse. We are however not wholly in agreement. Whatever else that party has in mind to excite more vigorous opposition and not to lose momentum, it should state bluntly for the public,” Ramjattan said.
“We have spoken constantly to the public and our feedback tells us that, at this present moment, the course we have taken ought to be continued,” he asserted.
The AFC leader said that his party will continue to internationalise and regionalise the developments which have brought about the prorogation and “argue the case that the PPP Government is wholly anti-democratic, and seek condemnations from those quarters plus locally.”
He said that the AFC also intends to hit the ground at bottom house meetings and large public meetings like at Whim on Saturday to educate the people of the need to change the PPP government at the next elections. “We will do regular TV programmes to this same effect. Also, to meet with labour, business, religious groups, civic organisations and political parties to encourage the formation of a broad-based anti-dictatorial platform against the excesses of this lawless executive…this PPP government…so that the National Assembly can be reconvened as soon as possible,” he declared.
Ramjattan said that the AFC will not shift from its position of having anything to do with dialogue with the PPP government unless the Assembly is reconvened. “We at the appropriate time will determine what other steps we will take. We will never be provoked into the traps the PPP wants us to walk into,” he said. “Thus, in our perspective, momentum has not been lost; it is simply being built,” he declared.
Going forward, the AFC leader said that they will do exactly what they are doing now. “If any change in direction or trajectory is necessitated, the public will be the first to know. If the WPA can provide us with the specifics of their plans and how these will be executed, then once they coincide with our thinking, we may very well enjoin in them. Until then we march the course we have set,” he said.
