Guyana: Leader of Opposition Joseph Harmon on Monday said that President Dr Irfan Ali is suffering from confusion and insecurity about his stature in the country.
“I have taken note of President Irfaan Ali’s most recent pleadings and protestations with regard to constitutionally mandated consultation on judicial appointments,” said LoP.
He further added that, “I feel pity and sorrow for Mr Ali who is clearly suffering from confusion and insecurity about his stature.”
Harmon bluntly said again that he is ready, willing and able to engage in consultations on the earliest opportunity on this matter. “I am prepared to meet with President Ali for consultation this week, as early as tomorrow, if he is so inclined.”
However he said that President Ali’s encumbrance of unrealistic, unnecessary and outrageous extra-constitutional conditionalities is an attempt to stall further the appointment of a substantive Chancellor and Chief Justice in the country.
In government and in opposition, it was the PPP that has engaged in political intransigence that has prompted Guyana to be without a substantive Chancellor and Chief Justice for decades.
“The PPP does not want substantive appointments to be made to these two top judicial posts. The PPP wants to hold non-confirmation as the sword of Damocles over the heads of those appointed to act.”
“Further, it appears as though Mr Ali is uncertain about his status as President and is seeking validation. Perhaps he is acutely aware that even as he acts, he does so not of his own free will and volition but at the behest of his handler. Mr. Ali’s insecurities cannot be resolved by me, but he must look to Pradoville 2 to release him from whatever constraints and bondage he finds himself in,” said Leader of Opposition.
“It was he who willingly chose to subject himself to this arrangement, and if now that he is in the position, he is suffering from buyer’s remorse he must take that up with the person with whom he entered into the odious deal.”
He also added that he was not a part of that transaction and he is not in a position to release President Ali from whatever insecurities he feels imprisoned by.
“It is clear that it is Mr Ali who seems to unwaveringly believe that he is President only in name and on paper. This is understandable given that he is only able to effectively act as a Presidential secretary, executing what he is instructed to without any latitude or power to act of his own free will.
That is what democracy and the presidency have been reduced to in Guyana and Mr Ali’s protestations are cries for help to be rescued from his abiding predicament. But it was Mr. Ali who made his choice and who must now lie on the bed he made for himself and to deal with whatever consequences he faces from the foul deal he struck to get into the seat of the presidency.”
“Again, I feel pity for him and wish him well but do not hold much hope that he will be able to untangle himself from the entanglement he is caught up in with his political master,” concluded Joseph Harmon.
