President’s excuse for non-cooperation with political parties is unacceptable

Jan 11, 2009 Letters

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Dear Editor,
President Jagdeo’s comment published in SN dated Thursday, 9 January 2009 in which he is reported to have stated that “PNCR infighting ruined political cooperation”, can be described as nothing more than “political propagandizing”.
The President, obviously, is not serious when he made this comment but is, rather, using whatever, political waves rippling in the PNCR to defend his party and government’s position of non-cooperation even as the country is crying out for real political progress.
From the President’s rhetoric, it is clear that he and his party are relishing this PNCR moment so much so that Mr. Jagdeo feels confident enough that he can make certain statements, strategically, aimed at ratcheting up the PNCR situation and getting into the minds of party members, supporters, and critics alike.
The fact though is that Guyanese are not as naïve, gullible, and daft as the President and his cohorts think, we have been exposed to the PPP/C’s politically constructed psychological ploy on the nation for too long.
How can the President claim that campaigning against Corbin at the last PNCR congress derail co-operation between the political parties, when he cites, lack of trust between parties as the major issue blocking any cooperation, and that this trust is a prerequisite to entertaining any discussion on shared governance.
Guyanese will not buy into the President’s ramblings since we are aware of the PPP/C’s position on both political cooperation, and shared governance.

The fact is that PPP/C have been arguing since the days of Desmond Hoyte that there is lack of trust between parties, and this they see as their “trump card” to block any progress. No genuine attempt is ever made to give trust a try, in the interest of healing a struggling nation and addressing the concerns of a frustrated people.
On the issue of shared governance, the PPP/C made it clear to Desmond Hoyte and the PNCR that it was not supportive of executive power sharing.
When the PNCR advocates for executive power sharing, the PPP/C countered with, what they refer to as, “inclusive governance”.
This inclusive governance they assert is demonstrated in the parliament with the establishment of parliamentary sectoral committees, where parties share the role of chairing these committees.
For them, this is sufficient cooperation and represents their concept of power sharing. The PPP/C can care less whether power sharing might be the answer to Guyana’s deep political problems. In the article the President was ready to point out how power sharing will not work.
He cites, Zimbabwe and Kenya as examples of where this model of governance was unsuccessful but fails to point out the large number of countries in which this model was implemented with varying degrees of success. Countries such as Fiji, Ireland, Malaysia, Cyprus, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium and Austria were intentionally not referred to by the President.
Further, it is now being widely advanced that Georgia adopts the power sharing model of governance to solve its internal problems.
If the President and his party are serious about meaningful cooperation and digging Guyana out of the political and economic quagmire in which the country has been locked in for year, they would demonstrate good faith and take the lead role in advancing such cooperation.
To use the PNCR internal political situation as an excuse for non-cooperation is a “low blow” and unfortunate political ploy. The PPP/C should be embarrassed by the President’s remarks.
The call for power sharing is nothing new, so the President and his party had a long time to carefully analyse the total benefit of this model of governance, if implemented in this our, largely, pluralistic society.
Desmond Hoyte, late leader of the PNCR, stated in his congress address at the PNCR congress in 2001 that: “the time for power sharing, shared governance, whatever you want to call it has come”.
The PPP/C response was inclusive governance; they claim that they had done more than adequate by agreeing to the establishment of sectoral committees in the parliament.
In fact a Minister of the government stated the PPP/C’s position bluntly when he stated in the parliament, in response to the PNCR power sharing call; that “ya’all had ah yuh time is we time now, ah yuh had 28 years we got to get 56″.
This is the true mentality of the PPP/C so the President must not conjure up excuses for not entertaining the power sharing formula.
My only concern, though, is that while the President and the government continue to play politics with the nation’s progress the underlying frustration is continuing to heat up, people will not wait for political leaders for direction but will take matters into their own hands.
Pippa Norris, Political Scientist and Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, had this to say on power sharing: “power sharing institutions should be ideal models for states struggling to achieve stable democracy, and good governance in divided societies”.
Maybe the President and the PPP/C believe that Guyana is an ideal democracy, cemented with an undivided population and, has a government that exhibits all the criteria of good governance. Or maybe they just don’t care!
Mr. President we, the people, will not be bought into your kind of politics. We hope, however, that you will do what is right and in the best interest of a struggling nation.
Lurlene Nestor

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