Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has said that his party needs clarity on government’s national unity invitation as there are two conflicting proposals.
He said that initially President David Granger invited the PPP/C to be part of a national unity committee but subsequently Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo spoke of a government of national unity.
“…There is some ambiguity about what is being proposed …and do the conditions exist for this social cohesion, national unity talk?” he queried on Friday during a press conference at Freedom House.
During the budget debates, Jagdeo had indicated his willingness to engage the Granger administration in talks. Subsequently, PPP/C General Secretary Clement Rohee expressed concern about the prospect of Nagamootoo leading negotiations for the government in unity talks with the party.
Asked to clarify what exactly is his party’s position on engaging the government, Jagdeo told reporters that when he met with the President, he was given an agenda that requested the opposition’s participation in several committees, one of which was a national unity committee.
He said that subsequently Nagamootoo went to Whim and said that he was inviting the opposition to form a national unity government, which is different to a national unity committee. “I do not know whether that is the intention of the President…. apart from the fact that he [Nagamootoo] is prone to make frivolous statements that he does not have the authority to make… because he is neither head of state nor head of government,” he said.
Jagdeo said that if he hears from the President he will take the proposal seriously but this does not speak to “whether we will participate or not or how far, but I would take it seriously… the same proposal that Nagamootoo made.”
