Dear Editor,
Permit me to respond to Mr Manzoor Nadir’s letter published in the Stabroek News of Saturday, June 25, under the caption, ‘Jagan was prepared to offer Vice-Presidencies to Thomas and Tennassee’.
It is clear from Mr Nadir’s letter that he is either deliberately trying to sow confusion in the present debate or is innocently mixing up two different situations. In his letter he was referring to the negotiations within the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy (PCD), which the TUF was not privy to. These negotiations were held between member parties within the PCD to find agreement on a common slate to contest the 1992 General and Regional Election. Let me reiterate that the TUF, by virtue of not being a member party within the PCD was not privileged to be part of those discussions. The issue being looked at surrounds Dr Jagan’s offer and subsequent withdrawal of a ministerial position to Dr Clive Thomas, after the PPP/C won the 1992 elections.
The political circumstances that led to Dr Jagan’s post-elections offer to the WPA had to do with the PPP/C which won the 1992 elections but fell short of a comfortable majority that would have allowed it to pass the budget without having to negotiate in the parliament with the PNC. This is the context in which the post-1992 elections negotiations took place.
One of the things which ensued from those discussions was an arrangement which saw the leadership in Region 8 RDC being shared and rotated between the WPA and the PPP/C and the Regional parliamentary seat going to the WPA and WPA support for the PPP/C to get two additional parliamentary seats from the National Congress of local Democratic Organs (NCLDO). In taking that approach WPA did not link it to the ministerial offer. After President Jagan got his parliamentary arithmetic correct he was no longer interested in the ministerial offer to Dr Thomas. Because Dr Jagan had gotten from the WPA what he wanted he saw no need to continue the charade.
The WPA made the mistake in the process of separating the ministerial offer from the regional and parliamentary negotiations and agreement.
Editor, permit me the opportunity to acknowledge Mr Clairmont Lye’s response re my refusal to heed his advice to check with Dr Thomas (SN, June 28): I repeat there is no need for me to do so. I will now add for his information that the WPA’s delegation to that meeting when the offer was withdrawn comprised Dr Clive Thomas, Moses Bhagwan and Wazir Mohamed.
Yours faithfully,
Tacuma Ogunseye
