Addressing the PNCR’s General Council meeting on Saturday, President David Granger told the gathering that his “biggest concern is to make Guyana safe for you and for your children.”
Granger, the Leader of the PNCR was at the time addressing the crime situation, a release from the PNCR said without elaborating further.
In recent weeks, the APNU+AFC government has come in for searing criticism over rising crime particularly in light of the fast approaching independence jubilee celebrations.
The release disclosed that General Secretary Oscar Clarke reported to the Council that the party was preparing for its 19th Biennial Congress scheduled for August 2016. The party’s last congress was rife with controversy over the election of a leader and a dispute with Linden supporters.
The General Council also addressed the matter of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the death of Walter Rodney.
The release said Clarke reported to the Council that the report of the Rodney CoI was received and discussed by the party’s Central Executive Committee. Clarke said the party would shortly make an official statement on the report. The General Secretary also said in the release that it was the opinion of the party that the intellectual authors of the Walter Rodney Commis-sion of Inquiry were never interested in the search for truth. He said, “The intent of the conveners was to use the Commission to discredit and embarrass the PNCR, to fracture or destroy the partnership that was fostered through A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and to continue to demonise the Founder Leader, Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham.”
The CoI report has proved controversial for the PNCR. While Granger as leader of APNU – the major partner in the governing APNU+AFC coalition – has repudiated the report, the AFC following a retreat said it is of the “view that the report affords the country an opportunity to address a difficult period of its history and hopes that it forms the basis for national healing and reconciliation.”
The Rodney CoI report had said that the then PNC – the precursor of the PNCR – and its leader, Prime Minister Burnham had to have knowledge of the plot.
“Dr Walter Rodney was a man of large and significant stature both in Guyana and beyond at the time of his death. He could only have been killed in what we find to be a State organised assassination with the knowledge of Prime Minister Burnham in the Guyana of that period. It was a controlled society and Burnham had a large and detailed knowledge of whatever was being done by the state and its agencies,” the report asserted.
The PNCR release said Granger delivered the feature address on Saturday in which he reviewed the importance of Burnham to the independence movement and said that in observance of the party’s 60th anniversary next year, the newly established Forbes Burnham Research and Reference Library will be producing and publishing all the major speeches he delivered.
Saying that the March 18 Local Government Elections was a step forward, Granger called on members of the party to be “leaders in the building of strong village economies.”
He added that party members must look for economic means of providing employment, especially youth employment.
