'Logic demands that we talk with the PPP/C'
-Hoyte tells Square of the Revolution meeting


Stabroek News
April 9, 2001

People's National Congress REFORM (PNC/R) leader Desmond Hoyte has publicly announced his intention to meet with President Bharrat Jagdeo stating that dialogue must take the form of "open negotiations."

"The time will come when we will have to sit down and talk with the PPP about matters which concern us. We have to talk from a position of strength and authority," Hoyte told a rally of the party's supporters at the Square of the Revolution on Saturday night.

He acknowledged that he had received a letter from President Jagdeo which he would be replying to at "an appropriate time."

"Logic demands that we talk...This is a time for thinking. This is not a time for emotion," he said.

PPP/Civic officials were yesterday studying Hoyte's address and said a response would be likely forthcoming today. Just before and after the March 19 elections, President Jagdeo had extended informal invitations to meet with Hoyte on the way forward for Guyana.



A PPP/Civic official noted that Jagdeo's pledge of inclusiveness was not restricted to the legislative arm of the government.

Hoyte said he has been bombarded by advice from people about the concept of power sharing, many of whom seem to have various interpretations of the term.

But the PNC/R's position on the subject is that the party must be in a position to influence government policies and programmes for the benefit of the people.

"We must be in a decision-making mode so that the power of 42% [of the electorate] will be felt and heard in all corridors of society in this land," Hoyte declared.

He asserted that the incidents along the East Coast just after the elections were examples of the people rebelling against the system.(See other story on page 10.)

He stated that the gravamen was not only the elections but also the fundamental issues affecting their daily lives.

The PNC/R said the elections were about the young people and their future, an area where the work of the party will now be concentrated.

Hoyte described the 42% of the votes won by the PNC/R at the elections as announced by the Guyana Elections Commission as a "powerful force" which the party will use to secure redress for the grievances experienced by its supporters.

The PPP/C must realise that it cannot govern efficiently if almost half of the population felt marginalised, he said.

He stressed the importance of maintaining unity within the party and for its members to remain mobilised.

"The only way we could get redress is by a show of solidarity. Our first task is to keep the party intact," Hoyte stated. In a broadcast after the March 19 elections, Hoyte had laid out a raft of areas that the party wanted to see progress on and to engage the PPP/Civic on. Political observers note that while there has been no formal recognition of the PPP/C government, Hoyte's address to the nation and Saturday's meeting at the Square of the Revolution implied that the party accepted its role in opposition and that of the PPP/C in government.



Accusing the PPP/C of embarking on an agenda to spread disunity in the PNC/R, Hoyte charged that the party had distributed pamphlets which stated "Time for Hoyte to go" and "Hoyte and Benschop leading the PNC/R."

Hoyte disclosed that PNC/R party members have been approached by the PPP/C with offers of positions in the administration.

He acknowledged that "one or two" would cross over to the PPP/C but dismissed this as due to the fact that there was no place for these persons in the PNC/R in the first instance.

The PNC/R leader lambasted Stabroek News for "seizing every opportunity to make nasty remarks about the PNC." Hoyte said the newspaper was playing "a dangerous game" by seeking to compromise the younger members of the party.

He referred to a section of Saturday's editorial which read: "Perhaps some of the bright younger leaders of the PNC, like Sherwood Lowe, Debbie Backer, James Mc Allister and Raphael Trotman could take the initiative to meet their counterparts in the PPP and set the ball rolling."

Hoyte charged that the newspaper was attempting to create an impression that these persons were "separate and apart" from the party's leadership and to sow seeds of disunity. Stabroek News Editor Anand Persaud in response said the editorial could in no way be seen to be compromising the younger leaders of the PNC/R. He said the suggestion for talks at the level of the younger leaders was made in the absence, up to that point, of any attempt to convene dialogue between Jagdeo and Hoyte. Talks at lower levels between officials of the two parties were seen as helpful in this context.

Hoyte noted the newspaper also criticised the party for waiting until elections to bring up charges of discrimination. But when he wrote a letter to Stabroek News Editor-in-Chief, David de Caires setting out "chapter and verse" about incidents of discrimination it was never published, Hoyte said.

Persaud noted that de Caires had written Hoyte offering to publish an edited version of the letter since some of the allegations were inflammatory and not supported by any evidence. The offer was not taken up.

"Don't look to organs like Stabroek News to support us. They are trying to put us in a bad light but we are a powerful force... We will march on to victory," the PNC/R leader declared.

Before the Square of the Revolution meeting, PNC/R supporters marched from the party headquarters at Congress Place at the conclusion of a special general council meeting.

The marchers were guided by leading members of the PNC/R Robert Corbin, Deborah Backer, Jerome Khan, Stanley Ming and Dr Phillip Thomas.