The governing People’s Progressive Party wants the United States Embassy in Georgetown to back out of the Leadership and Democracy Project.
In a statement on Sunday, the PPP said it has noted with “deep concern the position taken by United States Ambassador Brent Hart on the so-called LEAD Project.”
“The US Embassy has been moving ahead with the implementation of the project despite the concerns of the Guyana Government. The Government has not offered any support for the project and several efforts by the US Embassy to get the government to support the initiative has failed.”It is the considered view of the PPP that the Project in its present form will not achieve its stated objective which is to build leadership capacity among stakeholders but apparently forms part of a much broader political agenda which could undermine the country’s fragile democracy”, the PPP said in its statement.
The Party said it wants good sense to prevail on the part of the United States government and that “the sovereign rights of the Government and people of Guyana to determine their own political future will be respected and not frowned upon as is currently the case.”
The PPP said it is at a loss to understand why a foreign power “that lay claim to respect for democracy and self determination of sovereign states could be so callous in its disregard of the opinion of another sovereign state and continue to persist with a Project that do not find favour with the Government of Guyana.”
“The PPP stands firmly behind the Government of Guyana in its rejection of the LEAD Project and calls on the US Government through its Ambassador to end forthwith the continuation of the Project and re-engage the Guyana Government on the way forward”, the statement reinforced.
According to the PPP, it wishes to draw attention to the fact that the “PPP is a democratically elected government with a mandate to govern this country in a manner that corresponds to the wishes and preferences of the Guyanese people and not at the behest and dictates of foreign vested interests.”
Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon announced last week that he will be hosting new talks with the U.S Ambassador to Guyana on the project. Despite the government concerns, several other groups are supporting the project and the project has been moving in to several communities across the country. Persons are being familiarised with democratic norms and the important role communities and citizens ought to play in ensuring their rights are protected and democracy is maintained.
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