Jagdeo replies to Hoyte on dialogue proposal
Carberry, Persaud to meet
Stabroek News
June 19, 2002
President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday formally responded to PNC/R leader
Desmond Hoyte accepting his proposal that their representatives should meet to
clarify the outstanding issues to be resolved.
Hoyte suggested this course of action after Presi-dent Jagdeo had requested
that they should resume the dialogue process. A number of weeks have elapsed
since Hoyte responded to the President and he is now out of the country.
PNC/R Chairman, Robert Corbin, said that he not seen Jagdeo's letter as yet
but there were arrangements in place to deal with urgent issues affecting the
party.
In any case, he said, it was the party's central executive committee, which
advised Hoyte to suspend the dialogue with the President. That forum, he said,
would make a determination about the President's letter.
The PNC/R's executive committee had advised Hoyte to suspend the dialogue
with the President because there were a number of dialogue decisions that had
not been implemented.
The President told reporters at a press conference yesterday that he had
responded to Hoyte's letter following the refusal of the PNC/R representative
Lance Carberry to meet his PPP/C counterpart Parliamentary Affairs Minister,
Reepu Daman Persaud. Carberry, according to the President, claimed that he
had no mandate to meet Persaud because the President had not formally
indicated his acceptance of Hoyte's proposal.
The President described Carberry's position as "mincing words" and not
"designed to be helpful." Stabroek News was unable to contact Carberry for a
comment about the President's assertions. However, at numerous press
conferences he had said that he was yet to hear from Persaud. Last Thursday, at
the PNC/R's weekly press conference he also repeated his claim that he had not
heard from Persaud as well as noted that the President had not responded
formally to Hoyte.
At their last meeting, Carberry and Persaud failed to reach agreement on a
variation on the size of the sectoral committees. The meeting followed one
between the President and Hoyte at which the President indicated a willingness
to review the size of the committees to take account of the exclusion of Cabinet
ministers as had been demanded by the PNC/R. Stabroek News understood
that the PNC/R rejected the proposal that was finally made by Persaud. Apart
from the non-implementation of the dialogue discussions, the two sides are
deadlocked on the size of the parliamentary sectoral committees and the
composition of the parliamentary management committee. The deadlock has
delayed for several months, the establishment of the four service commissions.
This has resulted in a number of disciplinary matters being left unattended and
promotions in the Public Service, the Police Force, the Prisons Service and the
Teaching Service not being made.