Opposition Leader David Granger speaking in the National Assembly.

Executive member of the Working Peoples Alliance, Professor David Hinds’ ‘F’ grade for A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) failure to stick to its campaign promise to secure power-sharing has been dismissed by Opposition Leader, David Granger.

“I’m being frank with you I will give the APNU an “F” in terms of advancing the agenda that they put to the Guyanese people during the election campaign,” said Hinds.

Granger, who is also leader of the Peoples National Congress Reform (PNCR), blamed Hinds’ extended stay overseas for his inability to appreciate some of the opposition coalition’s work.

Hinds, a Political Science Professor in the United States, said APNU does not exist outside of Parliament and the only functioning organ is the Leadership Council that meets regularly and makes decisions. “All the other bodies in the APNU are not functional,” he said. He further claimed that APNU did not exist outside of the Assembly but was functioning as individual parties.

“I do not support Dr. Hinds’ views. He is not present in the country and it’s possible that he might be unaware of the work of APNU,” Granger told Demerara Waves Online News (www.demwaves.com). He added that APNU, including WPA members, have been engaged in outreaches and other work.

WPA Executive member, Professor David Hinds.

The APNU Chairman said the coalition’s executive has met several times and has been briefed on several matters such as the situation in Region 10. Leadership Council meetings, he said were being held every quarter. The Shadow Cabinet meets weekly and the parliamentary group meets monthly. “I think that it is possible that Dr. Hinds is unaware of what is taking place in this jurisdiction,” added Granger.

APNU’s performance has been in the spotlight since Hinds last week said on Christopher Ram’s television programme, ‘Plain Talk’, that APNU has failed to pursue its campaign promise of ensuring that there is a National Unity Government.

“After the election, I thought that, having won a majority, what you needed to do was to use that majority to bargain for a political solution,” he said. Hinds later explained to DemWaves that the opposition could have tabled a Parliamentary Motion and later a Bill in the House for the creation of a National Unity Government.

Professor Hinds reiterated that power sharing is the key to ending exclusion by Guyanese of African and East Indian descent from decision-making whenever either of the two race-based major political parties is in power.

“I think that is almost criminal because I can tell you, as someone on the APNU platform, the biggest applause line was when we said never again will there be a one-party government, never again will 51 (percent) mean a hundred…One year after you have not even introduced a motion- that is a betrayal of the trust that the people have given you,” added Hinds.

Granger, who is also APNU Chairman, disagreed saying that certain Constitutional Reforms including any that could permit power sharing could require support from at least 43 of the 65 seats in the House.

“I think Dr. Hinds is quite aware that some Constitutional Reforms are not possible without a two-thirds majority and we are working in the world of the possible, in the realm of the possible,” said Granger. APNU has 26 seats, Alliance For Change seven and the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) 32.

Asked what APNU planned to do if the PPPC refused, Granger spoke about ongoing talks concerning a 12-year old agenda of the reconstituted parliamentary Constitutional Reform Committee.

WPA Executive Member Desmond Trotman, who is an APNU parliamentarian, declined to comment on Hinds’ position, instead opting to say that overall the opposition coalition has done “very well” in the circumstances.

“I don’t want to comment on that because, as you know as a member of the WPA, he is free to speak to issues in his own voice…I think it is unfair to ask me to compare  how I feel with how Dr. Hinds feels,” Trotman told DemWaves.