The trouble with courtship

Jun 03, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Judging from the reaction of the Alliance For Change, the opposition is not too impressed by the pitch the President made recently when he called for greater political cooperation.

And if this is indeed the case then the President’s forthcoming consultations on an environmentally-friendly new development strategy may be in serious problems.

There is now a strong possibility that the opposition will look askance on these consultations, something that is very unfortunate, but for which the government and the ruling party has no one to blame but itself. For too long they have failed to have any constructive and meaningful consultations and engagements with the opposition parties, reducing such processes to self-serving exercises driven by emergency crises such as what we had just after the Lusignan massacre.

After the stakeholder meetings that were held following that tragedy there was great optimism that things would have been different and we would have witnessed greater political cooperation. Well, that did not materialise, and the high expectations turned out to be a damp squib, and for this the government must take the total blame.

It has demonstrated by its record in government that it is not serious about political inclusiveness, and certainly not sincere about working with the opposition.

The government and the ruling party are simply not prepared to give any political space to the opposition in this country, yet they wish the opposition to be at their beck and call every time they need them for a consultation.

The government needed the opposition on board when it belatedly opposed the Economic Partnership Agreement. The opposition took a principled position and supported certain of the positions adopted by the government in relation to the EPA.

For that, one leading member of the opposition had to resign his position within his party. The government got what it wanted, a united front against the EPA, and in supporting the government the opposition got nothing in return.

So ungrateful was the ruling party that when a few months later the opposition tabled a motion calling for alternative forms of sentencing, such as community service, within the Courts, the government blind-sided the motion by indicating that the timelines the opposition has set would not allow it to be supported, because the government needed to consult with its constituents, since the question of alternative sentencing was an important matter for which the public needed to be consulted.

So too, I suppose, is climate change. And since the ruling party did not wish to be bound by any short time frame as regards the implementation of community service for criminal offenders, it is likely that the opposition will have a strong moral case in similarly arguing that any consultations on climate change should not be rushed, but should take place over an extended period, say two years. More especially, what is being proposed by the government has implications for the way of life of not only the hinterland population, but also those who reside on the coastland.

The government therefore needs to show good faith if it wishes the opposition to come on board – yet another hurried exercise. It needs to do so, and one way in which it can show good faith is by considering what the opposition wants as regards local government reform. The opposition knows that the government will have its way as regards the legislation that is to be passed. It knows that the revised system for selecting councilors to local government bodies will be part of the legislation which is to be laid in the National Assembly and sent to a Select Committee. The opposition, however, is asking for all the other pieces of legislation, including laws relating to the establishment of a local government commission – something which this column considers to be an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy- and a bill for fiscal transfers, to also be tabled.

The President needs the opposition to come on board his climate change agenda, otherwise it will go nowhere. He has already tried dangling the proverbial carrot, when during a recent press conference he said he is open to the opposition’s suggestions concerning the treatment of Guyanese in Barbados. And of course he made a recent pitch for greater political cooperation amongst the political parties.

If he is serious about political cooperation then he should show good faith and offer to reopen the motion which the opposition had withdrawn dealing with community service for criminal offenders. He should also establish a national task force comprising the opposition parties and national stakeholders to come up with a plan to protect Guyanese with problems in Barbados.

And finally he should commit to tabling all four Bills dealing with local government reform. Now with that sort of goodwill, it is difficult to see how the opposition can refuse to be part of his climate change consultations.

Remember, marriage is preceded by courtship, and during courtship, there is a great deal of giving and accommodation.

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