Jagdeo pours cold water on Granger’s olive branch

Last Updated on Thursday, 13 October 2016, 17:55 by Denis Chabrol

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo Thursday afternoon dismissed overtures by President Granger to arrive at “consensus and compromise.”

“He said it many times. It’s all rhetoric. Has the President ever done anything significantly to move this forward?” Jagdeo told a news conference.

The former Guyanese leader said government’s social cohesion programme, under the umbrella of Minister Amna Ally, is more a “slush fund” for partisan party work. He questioned the credentials and ability of Ally to promote social cohesion. “Amna Ally is a partisan person. She can’t bring people together,” he said.

Jagdeo said President Granger is not sincere about working together. “The President does not mean it. He just says these things like so many other things that sound good,” said the Opposition Leader.

President Granger earlier Thursday, to mark the resumption of sittings after the two-month break, said despite the PPPC parliamentarians’ boycott of his address, he hoped that government and the opposition could reach “compromise and consensus.” “Let us hope that despite the absence of the opposition today, we will continue to search for and find avenues for compromise and consensus,” Granger said.

The PPPC MPs walked out of the National Assembly as the President was about to address Parliament to protest alleged bad governance by the coalition, in particular the suspension of Public Service Commission Chairman, Carville Duncan.

Duncan has been asked to show cause to a Tribunal why he should not be removed from office in light of charges that he allegedly stole director’s fees from the Guyana Power and Light.

Jagdeo has said thst Duncan, who appears to be cozy with the PPPC, has been an obstacle to government appointing political favourites to public service posts.