PNCR seeks alliance with Private Sector Commission
Stabroek News
April 23, 2004
The opposition PNCR recently met members of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) to encourage a formal/informal working relationship in the interest of securing support for a reformed system of governance for Guyana.
One private sector official at that April 8 meeting says the PNC briefed the members about the reasons for the Corbin/Jagdeo disengagement and highlighted the need for a reformed electoral system where 42% of the votes would count for something.
The PNCR shared its position on shared governance and encouraged the PSC to be part of the advocacy for a new form of governance.
The PSC members, the official says, noted that the effects of the electoral system are of concern and advised the PNC that the commission has a committee looking into security and governance issues.
Businessmen shared their concerns with the PNC over the abandonment of the constructive dialogue process and the boycott by the PNCR of parliament and encouraged that these should be the fora where concerns are raised.
However, the official says that the PNCR has adopted a position that it will not go back to the constructive dialogue because that process has been misrepresented and used for cheap propaganda by the ruling PPP/C. Little has been achieved by the process, the PNCR suggested.
In the case of parliament, the private sector was told that the absence is selective but the PNCR went through the pains of detailing how meaningless it thought the forum was. A series of examples were cited where any small changes recommended by the PNCR fell on deaf ears including in the select committee process. The recently passed Investment Act was cited as one example where the minister is empowered to name four private sector organisations to sit on the investment council. The PNCR recommended that the names of these organisations not be left to the discretion of the minister but rather be spelt out. However, the PNCR's recommendation was ignored.
The government has recently been uninviting the PSC, the umbrella private sector organisation, to meetings. Since last December President Bharrat Jagdeo has had meetings with various private sector organisations but to date has failed to meet with the PSC or to respond to a letter requesting a meeting. However, the government rhetoric about supporting and creating an enabling environment for the private sector to operate within continues at every possible forum.