GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Sept 15, CMC – Less than 24 hours after President Irfaan Ali said he had invited the two major opposition parties in the Parliament to a meeting, one has responded by rejecting the invitation outright, while the other said its participation will depend on the agenda.
Ali told a news conference on Tuesday that he had extended the invitation to the main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party of Opposition Leader, Azruddin Mohamed and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) headed by former opposition leader Aubrey Norton.
Ali told reporters that he had invited members of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Economic Services Committee to meet to discuss critical national issues, including developments on Guyana/ Venezuela border controversy at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the recent agreement with the United States for Guyana to receive third-country nationals, and Guyana’s economic growth.
“I believe in working and letting everyone understand what we are doing at the policy level, so we will have those two meetings later this week. It’s going to be broad, a broad agenda…,” Ali told reporters on Monday.
But in separate statements, WIN said that parliamentarians are elected to represent the people of Guyana through their respective political parties and that opposition legislators “do so collectively under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition, a constitutional office established to provide oversight and accountability to the Executive.
“The President’s decision to bypass genuine engagement with the Leader of the Opposition and instead seek to engage individual parliamentary committees raises serious concern that this is an attempt to avoid meaningful engagement with the constitutional office and the person who holds it,” WIN said in its statement.
It said also that it is seeking clarification from the Speaker of the National Assembly, including a request for an agenda or an indication of the purpose of the proposed meeting. WIN said that there was no meaningful response, and as such, the party’s Members of Parliament would not participate in the meeting.
“This decision is also informed by the wider treatment of members and supporters of the political opposition in recent weeks, including the detention, the seizure of phones and vehicles, and degrading treatment of persons while in state custody. The three young men detained by the authorities were made to remain in a state of undress in a cell with other men; this constitutes a serious violation of human dignity and raises grave human rights concerns. We cannot ignore these developments and then participate as though normal institutional relations exist.”
APNU said while its legislators have no difficulty participating in a properly planned and organised meeting with the President aimed at advancing the interests of the Guyanese people “such meetings should take place before agreements are finalised and signed, so that participation can meaningfully influence national decisions.
“Presenting the opposition with an accomplished fact and calling it consultation is an unacceptable fait accompli. Any such meeting must have a clear agenda and the relevant documentation, including proposed agreements, financing frameworks and assessments of their implications, so that all participants can engage in informed discussion in the national interest.
“We therefore expect this information sufficiently in advance of any meeting to allow proper examination and preparation,” APNU said, adding that as a principled opposition party in a democracy, it “must determine whether to attend the meetings proposed by the President according to the prevailing context and content.
“Our decision cannot be reduced to an automatic acceptance or rejection of an invitation. We will assess whether there is a genuine opportunity to influence policy, obtain answers and secure improvements for the people we represent.
“Attending a meeting after national decisions have already been made, with no genuine opportunity to change them, is not consultation. It is a dictatorial exercise seeking cover behind a poorly planned political photo opportunity. Attendance must never be misrepresented as endorsement, and legitimate disagreement must never be dismissed as opposition to development,” said the APNU in its statement.
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