…complains about President’s refusal to meet with him
Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon has written to Chairman of CARICOM, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keith Rowley informing him about Guyana’s alleged intensified “slide into a state of dictatorship under the PPP”.
In a letter dated March 18, 2021, and carbon copied to Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin La Rocque, Harmon outlined what his party believes are acts by the PPP/C Government which have negatively affected the rights of Guyanese.
“I have written a number of letters pointing out Guyana’s slide into a state of dictatorship under the PPP. I regret to advise that rather than an abatement, there has been a deliberate intensification of this slide,” Harmon stated, adding:
“To date President Irfaan Ali has adamantly refused to meet with the Parliamentary Opposition on the spurious grounds of ‘recognition by the Leader of the Opposition and the supporters of APNU+AFC’. This Honourable Chairman, is, without question, inflammatory, unacceptable, undemocratic and a cop out. It is also the antithesis of the spirit of inclusive and consultative leadership.”
In the letter, Harmon repeated the matters which the main opposition hopes to engage President Irfaan Ali’s attention.
They included the discouraging of ‘red or green communities’; broadening stakeholdership at the National, Regional and Community levels; the shunning of ethnic marginalization and vindictiveness; redressing occurrences in Guyana since August 2020; the need for greater focus on poverty and the plight of poor citizens; the protection of Guyana’s sovereignty and national patrimony; the Opposition’s representation on the National COVID-19 Task Force; and the need for the update of Guyana’s election laws.
Harmon pointed to Recommendation 3 of the CARICOM Elections Observation Report which encouraged that Guyana’s two main political parties “start the healing process of the country and to start the closing of the ethnic divide.”
He told Dr. Rowley: “Honourable Chairman, I support this recommendation and against this background, I urge that the CARICOM mechanism, under your leadership, sees the urgent need for decisive action. 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.”
In January 2021, Harmon also wrote Dr. Rowley about the unsolved murders of the West Coast Berbice (WCB) teens; the firing of Afro-Guyanese public servants and the alleged discriminate distribution of the COVID-19 relief cash grant in Guyana.
The Village Voice News is unaware of whether there has been a response from the CARICOM Chair.
