by Wendella Davidson
Guyana Chronicle
April 27, 2001

PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo, enthused at the outcome of talks this week with People's National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) leader, Mr. Desmond Hoyte, said yesterday he would love to have "an ongoing engagement with the Opposition".

Due to meet Mr Hoyte again Wednesday after two rounds of one-on-one talks, the President said, "the way I see it, I want to move forward rapidly."

"I would like to see things move on, I don't like to have things hanging around all the time..."

"...I hope myself and Hoyte could meet very often to keep...maybe, even institutionalised meetings so that we can keep the momentum going", he told a news conference.

"But I have no intention of wasting time. I have to move on.

"I have five years to deliver to (all) the people of this country, a better life...and I'm in no mood to waste time and just mince words and go back and forth. I want to move things along...

"I hope that on both sides we can work constructively...lots of these things we have been working on already and it's just getting them done," the President noted at the news conference at the Office of the President in Georgetown.

He, however, pointed out that the ongoing meetings he is suggesting will come after he and Hoyte have completed dealing with current issues and the agenda at hand.

Photos of President Jagdeo and Hoyte in yesterday's newspapers showed the two emerging from the second round of talks Wednesday night in smiles.

Asked yesterday to explain the congeniality and what transpired between them that led to a drastic change of a previously glum mood at the Tuesday meeting, the President responded with a boyish grin and to the amusement of the press corps, stated, "Well, we talked, we talked, we talked..."

The news conference was to report on Guyana's participation at last week's Third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada.

President Jagdeo reminded that he had been calling for a cordial atmosphere for a very long time and ongoing engagements between the Government and Opposition.

He noted that he realised the need for this after holding a number of community meetings and visiting places where he observed that whenever the Government and Opposition work together, the respective country progresses faster.

Other countries, the President said, have also demonstrated this.

"I hope that after we get through some of these issues on the agenda, that we (he and Hoyte) can continue to collaborate," Mr Jagdeo reiterated.

He said there are several areas, apart from those on the agenda, that Mr. Hoyte has raised and he would like to see the Opposition work with the Government.

This requires the two parties better understanding the challenges and difficulties facing the country and helping to contribute ideas for the path it should take, he said.

"I hope also that this will translate into working closely on the National Development Strategy (NDS), on a similar document (for) the public sector - the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, which is part of that (NDS) document, to make sure that at least we can (have) some element of consensus...especially on the economic, anti-poverty (drive) for our country," Mr Jagdeo told reporters.

Referring again to the meetings with Hoyte, he said, "but I am very happy to say that those meetings were excellent ones and we managed to deal with a number of issues on the agenda, issues that we both raised on both sides."

The President said he initially raised a number of issues, including recognition of the Government, condemnation of post-elections violence, the lessening of tension, and working towards the cessation of protests, adding most of those were dealt with at the first meeting.

But, he said, there are many other issues that he would like to get the Opposition to work on.

"But (being in) the Government, I have a mandate to deal with all issues, so I don't need to seek approval from anyone to deal with those issues. Although I would like to work with the Opposition on a whole range of issues outside of these, I didn't think I needed to raise them there."

President Jagdeo said that they had similar positions on some points Hoyte raised and his view is that once they both commit themselves to political neutrality in the public service, the issues about wages and salaries, contract officers, the Critchlow Labour College and other things can be negotiated between employer and employees and not by politicians anymore because it would contravene that principle.

The President said there are many other things to do after the two meet and address the issues at hand, to make sure that the country attracts investment and start programmes to improve education and health care and expand housing.

The two emerged from their second meeting smiling and laughing and reporting they had had a productive session.

Both men look relaxed and at ease in each other's company and a smiling Mr Hoyte said he and President Jagdeo had "a very fruitful session".

As they laughed together during a brief photo session and in exchanges with reporters in the Office of the President complex, President Jagdeo added, "We had a really good session..."

The joint statement issued from the two-and-a-half hours meeting outlined the progress they achieved as they continued the talks started Tuesday afternoon.

The atmosphere was decidedly different Wednesday to what it was for the first meeting which lasted two hours into Tuesday night.

Mr Hoyte did not return the President's welcome smiles Tuesday and appeared grim at the start of the meeting.

But the mood was vastly different as they ended Wednesday's session and both greeted reporters smiling broadly and laughing comfortably.

Of last week's summit in Quebec, the President yesterday said it afforded him the opportunity to present Guyana's position on a number of hemispheric issues and pursue several foreign policy initiatives.

The conference addressed the issue of democracy and good governance, creating prosperity in the hemisphere and realising human potential.

For Guyana, he said, the issues drew a parallel to the NDS and the priorities of the Government for advancing the economic and social progress of the country.

According to President Jagdeo, the Guyana delegation, which included Minister of Foreign Trade, Mr. Clement Rohee and Ambassador, Ms. Elisabeth Harper, also attached much importance to every aspect of the preparatory process to ensure that the country's interests and concerns were adequately addressed in the final documents of the summit.

The President said he addressed the gathering on "Creating Prosperity" and "The threats posed by globalisation to democracy and good governance".

He said he briefed both United States President, George Bush and Prime Minister Jean Chretien of Canada and others on the situation in Guyana.

He said the Guyana delegation was pleased that a democracy clause was inserted in the final declaration, which, he pointed out, specifies that only democratically elected governments will be allowed to participate in the Summit of the Americas process.

President Jagdeo also noted that forces within the society can undermine democratically elected governments, a point agreed to by all the leaders at the summit.

He recalled, to the amusement of reporters, that Chretien jokingly said he wanted him to feel comfortable and that was why he `arranged' the protests in Quebec.

Police and protesters clashed several times during the summit and the PNC/R was continuing anti-government street protests here last week.

In addition to informal exchanges he had with other Heads of State and Government, President Jagdeo said he met and raised bilateral issues with the Presidents of Suriname, Brazil and Venezuela.

He also had discussions with World Bank President, Mr. James Wolfensohn, Inter-American Development Bank President, Mr. Enrique Iglesias and Organisation of American States, Secretary General, Mr. Cesar Gaviria.