Hinds has no time to worry about Rohee’s “loose” civic comments

Hinds has no time to worry about Rohee’s “loose” civic comments

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds has indicated that he has no worries over comments made by the PPP’s General Secretary Clement Rohee who described the Civic component of the of the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) alliance as a “loose arrangement.”

The Prime Minister who reportedly headed the civic component since it was added to the PPP in 1992 brushed aside the comments when approached by the media on Wednesday. “Why worry about such things? I am an old engineer and I worry about creating and building things,” Hinds said.

Rohee made the statement days after the Party presented a new Prime Ministerial Candidate who will join the President in leading the PPP/C into the May 11 general and regional elections. There is speculation that the civic component from which such a candidate was traditionally drawn from was not adequately consulted.

“We could have a million things on which we can disagree but let us focus on the things on which we can agree on and create something,” the outgoing Prime Minister said; adding that “The challenge in life is not to disagree and have tensions and contentions; the challenge in life is bring people together.”

To this end, he said this is exactly what he has been trying to do over the last 20 years, spanning his career as Prime Minister.

But while Rohee would not confirm that the civic component of the Party had a leader and would have regularly meetings, his colleague Minister, Dr Nanda Gopaul referred to Hinds as the leader of the civic component at a press conference today.

Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Elisabeth Harper has been named the Prime Ministerial Candidate of the PPP Civic.

Rohee defended the decision on Tuesday by saying that Harper is from “civic society”. He said he was the one who put forward her name to the executive of the People’s Progressive Party and there was no other name offered up including names of serving members of the government who see themselves as members of the Civic group.

“The Civic component is a rather loose arrangement that is associated with the PPP, that is in alliance with the PPP. The civic component does not have any structure  as such so it was in that context that the decision was taken”, Rohee said. He added that the component has no leader and has never had any leader. He said it is a “rather loose configuration of individuals”.

Rohee said when Prime Minister Samuel Hinds was chosen as the Prime Ministerial Candidate for the first time back in 1992, there was no sitting around the table and consultation on that move although there were other members of the Civic grouping.

The PPP General Secretary further stated that Civic component never submitted a nomination for the post of Prime Ministerial Candidate and the group was never asked to submit a name although Prime Minister Samuel Hinds who is from that component had made known his desire to serve again if asked. He said the Prime Minister was told of the decision and was also “involved in the process”.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds has served as the PPP’s Prime Ministerial Candidate for every national elections since 1992. The party won all of those elections although it lost the majority in parliament at the 2011 polls. When questioned about what may have given Ambassador Harper the edge in being selected over the sitting Prime Minister who was ready to serve again, Mr. Rohee said “this party believes in reaching out and this party believes in change.”

He said if change is good for the opposition parties, it should also be good and accepted for the People’s Progressive Party.

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