The Social Partners are planning to resume their Article 13 initiative shortly and a meeting today will decide how they will proceed following the failure of their efforts in December to have the parliamentary parties affix their signatures to a communiqué on crime.
The President and the Leader of the Opposition were also to sign the communiqué in their constitutional capacities. Stabroek News understands that the Social Partners and their advisers will be looking at the possibility of resuming the all-party consultations, the first of which was held on September 11 at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel. The results of the meeting could lead to the Social Partners - comprising the private sector, the bar association and the trade union movement - seeking to convene a meeting of the parties as early as next week.
One of the issues the Social Partners are contemplating raising is the establishment of a mechanism to monitor the implementation of decisions. The talks between then PNCR leader Desmond Hoyte and President Bharrat Jagdeo collapsed because of the PNCR’s dissatisfaction with what it saw as the non-implementation of decisions. The PPP/C maintains that a number of the decisions were implemented and that the PNCR’s non-co-operation prevented implementation of the rest.
At the September 11 meeting the Social Partners were tasked with expanding on their initial paper on shared governance as a means of providing the appropriate environment for putting into operation the provisions of Article 13 of the Constitution. Article 13 provides for individuals through their organisations to participate in the decision-making processes in the country.
The Social Partners have since circulated a revised paper on shared governance and asked the parties for their comments. The PNCR had published its position on shared governance and has set in train a programme to stimulate debate on it both within and outside its ranks. The PNCR’s paper envisioned executive power sharing and a non-executive President among other features. The PPP/C published its position on “inclusive governance” in which it urges the implementation of the already agreed constitutional reforms as the first step towards more inclusive governance.
Meanwhile, since the collapse of the talks on the crime communiqué, a number of events have taken place.
The PNCR has elected Robert Corbin as its leader following the death of Desmond Hoyte, and arrangements are in train for an “engagement” between Corbin and President Jagdeo. Representatives of President Jagdeo and Corbin are to meet on Monday to continue their discussions on an agenda. President Jagdeo extended the invitation within minutes of Corbin being elected as leader by a Special Delegates Congress on February 1.
In preparation for this engagement Corbin has been consulting with the other parliamentary parties and civil society organisations such as the Guyana Trades Union Congress, the Guyana Manufacturers’ Association and the Guyana Islamic Trust. (Patrick Denny)