Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon has moved to secure the help of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to mediate the current stalemate between the Irfaan Ali government and the main parliamentary opposition APNU+AFC.
Harmon on Thursday wrote CARICOM Chairman and Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Dr Keith Rowley and cited a recommendation of the CARICOM Elections Observation Report, which he quotes as saying that when a government of Guyana is formed, the CARICOM Secretariat should find some way to mediate the issue between the two main political parties to start the healing process of the country and to start the closing of the ethnic divide.
“I support, this recommendation and against this background, I urge that the CARICOM mechanism, under your leadership, sees the urgent need for decisive action,” Harmon writes in the letter.
Noting that he has written a number of letters to CARICOM since August 2, Harmon lamented the Ali’s adamant refusal to meet with the main opposition. “Intransigence and a refusal to engage on the part of the PPP government is not contributing to the healing process and is in fact widening the ethnic divide,” he writes.
He argues that Ali’s position that he will not engage with the parliamentary opposition until his government is publicly recognized by “the Leader of the Opposition and the supporters of APNU+AFC is, without question, inflammatory, unacceptable, undemocratic and a cop out.”
“It is also the antithesis of the spirit of inclusive and consultative leadership…I have indicated, at all times, my willingness to meet and have publicly stated so,” he concludes.
Harmon, who during the prolonged 2020 elections crisis was wildly disparaging of the involvement of the regional and international community in Guyana’s governance, has reversed his position since being installed as Opposition Leader.
On Wednesday, following a meeting with the newly accredited Canadian High Commissioner Mark Berman, Harmon’s office announced that he had completed a “triumvirate of meetings” with the local representatives of the ABC countries. He had previously met separately with British High Commissioner Ross Denny and Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy Mark Cullinane.
Harmon is said to have briefed High Commissioners Denny and Berman as well as Cullinane on a number of matters of concern to the opposition, including Ali’s refusal to acknowledge his constitutional post.
Ali, however, has repeatedly stated that he is open for discussion with Harmon with the condition that the legitimacy of the government must first be recognised.
Ali has said that he has been reaching out to Harmon “all the time” in his public statements and that the Opposition Leader has a choice. “Let me be very clear on this, he has choice. Sometimes, we have to decide what is foolhardy and what we really want to achieve,” he said earlier this month.
According to Ali, Harmon “trampled” on the country’s democracy during the elections impasse and he has a responsibly to “come clean” now.
He is referring to attempts made after the polls to perpetuate the former APNU+AFC in office and which resulted in a five-month impasse before the transfer of government took place. APNU+AFC has since sought to challenge the polls via elections petitions.
“I don’t know what bubble he is living in but I am sure the Leader of the Opposition is aware like the rest of the world that he trampled upon democracy and then whilst the world celebrated the triumph of democracy… with the inauguration of a democratically, legitimately elected government, he still seems to be wallowing,” Ali added.
He further stated that he is ready to engage Guyanese at all levels and has already embarked on this process.
However, he said the question as to whether Harmon is ready to speak to the “legitimately-elected” government remains.
