Stabroek News
April 15, 2001

The arrangements are yet to be set in train for the meeting between President Bharrat Jagdeo and PNC/R leader, Desmond Hoyte SC, to discuss fundamental issues about the future governance of the country.

President Jagdeo and Hoyte have each named a representative to work out the arrangements. Parliamentary Affairs Minister in the Office of the President, Reepu Daman Persaud, named by the President told Stabroek News yesterday that he and PNC General Secretary, Oscar Clarke, named by Hoyte, would meet on Tuesday morning in the Committee Room at Public Buildings.

Contacted yesterday morning, Clarke had told Stabroek News that Persaud had not yet contacted him, but if he had not heard from him by today, he would initiate the contact. Persaud told this newspaper yesterday evening that he had since contacted Clarke and they had arranged to meet on Tuesday. He had told Stabroek News that he had received the assignment late on Thursday afternoon and was awaiting all the documents from the Office of the President before talking to Clarke.

In his letter naming Persaud as his representative, President Jagdeo had expressed the hope that his meeting with Hoyte would take place in an environment free from fear and intimidation. The meeting with Hoyte was requested by President Jagdeo who said before the March 19, elections and in the days following that such a meeting would be one of his first priorities.

Hoyte had acknowledged that such a meeting was dictated by the logic of the circumstances, given the results of the March 19, elections. And in a broadcast to the nation on March 30, had set out a menu of issues that needed to be addressed. He said the seriousness of the PPP/Civic in engaging in meaningful dialogue, promoting change, or collaborating in development would be gauged from the pace at which it moved to resolve them.

Among the issues he listed were the immediate implementation of all agreed constitutional reforms; the implementation of a joint programme for the resuscitation of the bauxite industry and the Linden community within an agreed timeframe; an immediate inquiry into police brutality and extra-judicial killings and systematic police harassment of selective communities with a view to preventing their recurrence; the immediate end to the political monopoly of state radio and the introduction of independent management of GTV, GBC the state-owned newspaper and the National Frequency Management Unit; the depoliticisation of the public service including the appointment of a professional head of the public service; the enforcement of the agency shop and check-off system for the public service union; the recapitalisation of the army and the restoration of its capacity to protect the national interest; nationally agreed programmes for dealing with border and security issues; and the implementation of legislation for the reform of the local and regional government system.

Last week President Jagdeo, in response to the concerns about the politicisation of the public service, told reporters that he was willing to discuss the establishment of a post of head of the public service which did not now exist. But he conceded that the head of the Presidential Secretariat was the recognized head of the public service.

President Jagdeo defended his appointment of Dr Roger Luncheon as head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), a move, which has sparked additional street, protests. He said he considered the HPS equivalent to a chief of staff, which was how he regarded Dr Luncheon and that every president had the right to appoint his own chief of staff.