NO HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

Dec 28, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The end of the year is fast drawing nigh, and with it, the hopes of many Guyanese who were expecting greater political cooperation between the government and the opposition.
All sides will indicate that they are keen on resuming the process of political dialogue. However for all intents and purposes, the possibility of any such process is extremely remote.
The relationship between the two sides is so sour that it is doubtful whether there were any exchanges of Christmas cards across the aisle in parliament. The basis simply does not exist for any form of political cooperation. And as long as the media continues to fan divisive issues, then both sides are going to continue to make pronouncements which will hinder any form of rapprochement.
One former politician once said that before there can be a marriage there has to be a courtship. One can suitably add that before there can be courtship, the parties must at least be on friendly terms.
At present this hardly seems to be the case, and given the fact that the government is under attack in the National Assembly and one of its members is being asked to step aside, there seems no possibility of any solution.
The year, however, did not begin in such a pessimistic way. In fact a promising start was made when it seemed that the sides had established some sort of mechanism for talks amongst themselves. No sooner had that process got going that the ganging up started. The settling of old political scores effectively hijacked any possibility of the tripartite process working.
The language on all sides is not helpful to any form of conciliation. The opposition is unbending in its demand that the Minister of Home Affairs should step aside. They simply do not understand that this is not their call; they have failed to understand what ministerial responsibility to parliament entails and in fact their very motion expressing no-confidence in the Minister of Home Affairs should never have been entertained because under the principle of collective responsibility, the government stands and falls on a no-confidence motion against one of its members. As such, the parliament should have by now been dissolved and new elections should have been held.
The dispute is now engaging the courts and therefore much more cannot be said, except that everyone will hold their breath and await the decision of the court.
Will it rule as it did in the past that the right of parliament to conduct its own affairs is not an absolute right but one that is subject to the constitution? Will it rule that no constitutional breach has taken place and therefore the courts cannot intervene in the internal affairs of parliament? Or will it assume a broader construction on limitations of parliamentary sovereignty and find that the courts have jurisdiction to adjudicate on the exercise of any powers that flows from the constitution?
It is doubtful whether any decision of the court is going to improve relations between the sides. And thus relations are likely to continue to be sour between the government and the opposition.
The problem that the opposition parties face is that their support base cannot deliver to them an election victory, and as such, their only hope of ever holding political power is to be able to demonstrate to the supporters of the government that there is nothing to fear from an opposition party or coalition of opposition parties.
Over the past twelve months, the opposition has failed to do this and in fact their political opportunism and vindictive politics have been on display for the entire country to see. And this will scare the living daylights out of the government’s supporters who will in the next election deliver a knockout punch to the opposition.
The people of Guyana have had twelve months to see what the opposition is about. They do not need another twelve months to confirm that there is not much hope that the combined opposition is going to change.
The opposition continues to delude itself into believing that it is forcing the government to change its ways. The opposition, however, cannot point to a single victory it has had with the government because of its strong arm tactics. The only concessions that it got out of the government have been those that involved negotiations.
The opposition is content to play the political role of calling for dialogue with the government on one hand and then bashing the government in, through the exercise of its one-seat majority in the National Assembly. This is most unhelpful and calls into question how serious the opposition really is about dialogue with the government.
The government should take the opposition out of the lock that it finds itself in. It should dissolve parliament and call fresh elections, because if after twelve months the sides have problems talking to one another, this is not likely to improve given the court case that is soon to begin. And even that case is not likely to lead to an improvement in the relationship between the sides.

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