Opposition Leader David Granger said a new political culture is needed if the country is to progress, noting that this remains the responsibility of the three political parties.
Speaking at an A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) news conference at his Hadfield Street office on Wednesday, Granger stated that the “new political culture” should be based on a form of governance that prevents gridlock in the National Assembly.
Granger added that the new political culture should also encourage cordial relations and civilised dialogues among the parties, underscoring that it is for this reason, since December 1, 2011; the three political parties initiated a tripartite process.
“When I speak of a new political culture, I speak of creating a relationship among the three parties in the National Assembly to ensure that the dialogue that takes place is for the benefit of the whole nation and we do not have collisions and car crashes that we have had over the last 18 months,” he said.
Job creation
The opposition leader stated that APNU and the Alliance For Change (AFC) would also like the government to set up a tripartite Budget Committee that the three parties can work on to meet consensus. The work of the National Assembly has been characterised by political brinkmanship ever since the 2011 election. Numerous bills, motions and even the national budgets have been subjected to disagreements.
Only recently, the Amaila Falls bill, though managed to clear the House, could not prevent the developer from pulling out, owing to lack of consensus as the main opposition, APNU, voted against it.
Granger only recently had criticised the government for not dealing with the issue of youth unemployment, but the administration hit back, saying that it was his party that killed the Amaila Falls project, which would have been a job creator.
Granger told the news conference that his party would like the government to explain exactly how this project will provide employment since it does not see this happening. He added, “We don’t want to produce labourers.”
The APNU leader also said since Sithe Global has hinted “unequivocally” and “unapologetically” that it is not interested in the hydro project any longer, its licence, which will expire at the end of the year, should be revoked. “I don’t know what the legal mechanism is for recovering the licence, but if is being voluntarily surrendered, it could be advertised for another bidder,” he said.
Other sites
Granger stated that there are about a 100 sites in Guyana which can generate hydropower, hence, his party is not questioning whether Amaila Falls is the best, explaining that there may be other sites which can be linked to the project to acquire benefits. “We need to examine an interlocking area of hydropower so that we get the greatest potential,” said Granger.
He said APNU has insisted that government takes a comprehensive Amaila Falls project before the National Assembly so it can look at the financial architecture, managerial structure, the plan, the means for disseminating the power and the improvement of the performance of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), which is going to be given the responsibility for distributing electricity from the project.
“We will ensure when APNU votes for that project, it will be something that the people of Guyana welcome, we look forward to having cheap power, abundant power and a hydropower project.”
