Shared governance in a society like ours will be a real challenge

Jul 28, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Reference is made to the exchange between Dr. Joey Jagan and Mr. Mike Persaud on the concepts of shared governance and coalition government. Both Persaud and Jagan used the terms vaguely, though not incorrectly, and it is not entirely correct to say that Dr. David Hinds is the architect of shared governance.
In the field of political science, the two terms cannot be used interchangeably although they are related. Shared governance is when the executive shares decision-making with those from opposing groups leading to some kind of an agreement. It usually takes place post-formation of a government and may or may not be constitutionally required. Examples would be South Africa (although opposing groups have stopped participating in the shared governance model), Belgium, Switzerland, Fiji (never implemented), etc. – as required by law.
A coalition is the coming together of two or more groups to contest an election or to form a majority government. Examples would be India, England, Australia, Israel, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland (constitutionally required to balance ethnic interests), Guyana between December 1964 and 1968, and Trinidad between November 1995 and 2000, among others. Coalition can also be a pre-election arrangement (as in Trinidad May 2010) for mutual benefit. A coalition usually has an agreed upon policy or program as in England between Tory and Liberals.
Shared governance may involve some kind of coalition building to arrive at a consensus on a policy. A coalition government necessarily involves shared decision-making among the parties to arrive at a consensus or else the coalition will fall apart and the government collapses, as in Canada 2010.
Shared governance is founded on the cornerstone principles of a partnership, collaboration, shared decision-making and some kind of egalitarian framework to balance the interests of competing groups. Some argue we have shared governance in Guyana, because the government consults with affected groups before legislating or implementing policy as takes place in any democracy.
It is inclusive governance listening to the perspectives of all stakeholders in the society. That is not the kind of shared governance being referred to by Hinds, Persaud, and Jagan. They are referring to an idea (though not all embracing the concept) in which the PPP government embraces the PNC as the true representative of the African population, and jointly governing the country to balance the interests of the ethnic groups.
Persaud objects to this shared governance model, arguing instead for the parties to become genuinely multi-ethnic (which will never happen in our lifetime) competing for cross-racial votes and putting someone of another race to head the ethnic party. Hinds promotes shared governance (PPP-PNC) calling it power sharing among the races. Jagan sees shared governance as involving all the parties coming together and running the nation, some kind of a grand coalition – hence his usage of shared governance and coalition interchangeably.
For Guyana, the modern concept of shared governance came about during the 1980s in discussion and debates in NY among Ravi Dev, Vassan Ramracha, Vishnu Bisram, Prof. Baytoram Ramharack and others. We were concerned about one race dominating other races in Guyana and felt some form of balancing of power among the races was necessary for peace and stability.
Exchanges were initiated between some of us, and leading figures (Eusi Kwayana, Drs. Rupert Roopnaraine, Wazir Mohammed, Nigel Westmaas, and Clive Thomas, etc.) from the WPA. Similar exchanges were held with figures (including Moses Nagamootoo) from the PPP and discussions with Dr. Cheddi Jagan. Dev was the architect of the discussion.
Dev, Ramracha and Ramharack coined the term federalism and decentralization of power as a means of power sharing. Hinds wrote about power sharing subsequently in columns in Caribbean Daylight (NY) and in letters in Guyana papers after the restoration of democracy and since the PPP’s rise to office.
In multi-ethnic societies, shared governance is important to balance the distribution of resources and development among the ethnic groups. The problem is when an ethnic party wins a majority of the seats in parliament as in South Africa or Guyana or Trinidad or Fiji, coalition and/or shared governance becomes difficult to implement. The victor sees itself as having a mandate to govern the society through its own mechanism and vision of shared governance. How shared governance takes place outside of a party that wins a majority in a multi-ethnic democracy like Guyana is a real challenge.
Vishnu Bisram

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