Stabroek News
April 8, 2001
PNC REFORM leader, Desmond Hoyte, has indicated his willingness to
talk with President Bharrat Jagdeo but says that the party must do so
from a position of strength.
He told a special meeting of his party's general council yesterday
that if the PNC/R was to be in a position to influence the programmes
for the development of the country and to address the grievances of
its supporters, "we have talk with them."
"We have to negotiate with them," he continued, "and
we have to do so from a position of strength."
Hoyte's comments came in response to the negative reaction of his
audience when he read the letter from President Jagdeo inviting him to
a one-on-one meeting "which would focus on our shared goal of
building a prosperous Guyana."
But he stressed that any negotiations with the PPP/Civic must be open
so that the PNC/R members and supporters would know what the two sides
were talking about.
Furthermore, he said, when the negotiations began, the party's
members and supporters had to continue to be mobilised, alert and
militant.
For the first time Hoyte also gave a clear hint of his concept of
power sharing. He explained that he had received numerous letters and
memos on the issue and that these had revealed no consensus. Even
within the party, he observed, there was no agreement on what was
meant by the term.
But he said that if the issues he had outlined in his broadcast on
March 30 were to be addressed by a joint programme and its
implementation monitored jointly, "that would be real power
sharing."
He said too that the programmes which were to be put in place had to
have an immediate impact so as to remove the irritants which had
plagued those who had been alienated for so long.
Hoyte observed that the results of the election were not the cause of
the "revolt" at Buxton and the other villages on the East
Coast Demerara but rather the spark which had triggered it.
He said that the residents of the villages had for years seen
improvements in the other villages around them, while they continued
to go without proper roads, water and drainage to permit them to farm
their backlands from which they used to earn a decent living.
Hoyte stressed, in reaction to reports in the media calling on him to
concede defeat, that the PNC/R could not concede in the light of all
the unexplained problems about the voters list. But he said that there
was a "de facto government in place and we have to go from there."
He warned that it could not be business as usual, as no government
could run a country if 42 per cent of the people were aggrieved and
alienated.
Hoyte also commented on the incident in which Haslyn Parris was
beaten inside the party's Congress Place compound.
He said that it was an incident which the party could not defend,
even though there had been agent provocateurs among the party members
and supporters in the compound.
Hoyte said that the party members and supporters had to be alert to
the efforts to cause dissension in the party and to avoid discussions
which could lead to confusion.
In comments from the floor following Hoyte's address, several of the
delegates from the regions referred to the need for the party to
maintain its alertness and militancy. They expressed the view that the
PPP would only move when placed under pressure.
One speaker felt that the party should look at power sharing in terms
of taking up ministerial positions, on the grounds that the quality of
the PNC/R members would overshadow that of the PPP/Civic appointees.
However, other speakers overwhelmingly rejected this notion of power
sharing.