APNU delays consideration of WPA’s proposal for increased consultations
January 31, 2015 | By KNews | Filed Under News, Source - Kaieteur News
More than a month later, the executive council of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is yet to consider a proposal made by the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) for increased consultations to be held between the two political forces.
Leaders of the WPA are of the opinion that Guyana is at a critical stage and that it is imperative that APNU gets the best strategies possible to handle the situation. The Party feels that “best” strategies can only be arrived at through consultations.
WPA thinks that the once a month meeting with the coalition that it is a part of is not good enough given “all that we are facing.”
Since last year, WPA asked APNU to have consultations more often. No answer was readily given but APNU promised that the proposal would have been considered.
However, this is yet to be done. It seems as if making such a decision is a hard task for a coalition with ambition to govern Guyana.
As he hosted APNU’s weekly press conference yesterday, Leader of the Opposition, David Granger, was asked about whether his coalition has decided on the WPA proposal. He responded in the negative.
Granger told the media that the APNU “has not had an opportunity to discuss that.”
The political leader gave the impression that the decision has to be made in the presence of members of the WPA. He said that an executive council meeting on Wednesday last which was attended by other parties but WPA “unfortunately had a clash so there were no WPA members at that meeting.”
However, Granger assured that the matter will be addressed at the next council meeting. He said, too, that “given the election season, much of our work will be in the field rather than in the conference room. But it will be discussed. We have not had the chance to discuss it as yet.”
This issue was first brought to the attention of the media late last year when the WPA hosted the first of a series of planned symposiums on the prorogation of parliament. At that forum, it was said that the WPA is not satisfied with the consultations.
In a subsequent interview, Professor Emeritus Clive Thomas, went in-depth. The long standing executive member of WPA told Kaieteur News that when taken into consideration all that Guyana is going through the WPA no longer sees a monthly meeting with the APNU as good enough.
He noted, too, that he is very much aware that everyone is under pressure but added that the strength of any organization lies within its strategy “and the strongest strategy can only be arrived at through consultation.”
The WPA official said that it is principle for any organization that speaks on behalf of others to do so with confidence that there was adequate consultation. “When speaking on behalf of everyone you must be able to say indeed that you are delivering the decision arrived at by everyone,” said Dr Thomas.
Dr Thomas said that he is not of the opinion that APNU simply wants to deny WPA a more active say but thinks that it is just a case where the leaders of APNU do not see consultations as an important priority.
The retired professor said, “The WPA takes the partnership very serious…it is a partnership and we all know what partnerships are about.”
Dr Thomas told Kaieteur News, “We don’t want them (APNU officials) to spend all their time with us. However, we need to express our views and we need to be up to date with decisions taken by the executive.”
He also said that WPA was belatedly informed about numerous decisions taken by the coalition mostly through the press.
WPA is supposed to be a key player in APNU. At the last election, APNU’s Prime Ministerial candidate was Dr Rupert Roopnarine, a long standing WPA member.