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A pathetic display from a government that enjoys excessive executive powers

Jan 29, 2013 Letters

 

 

Dear Editor,
The PPP does not seem to have a sense of time and place, nor does it seem to understand the serious implications of its actions. Walking out of Parliament is a pathetic and dangerous constitutional step for any elected government to take.
By walking out of Parliament, the PPP is confirming it does not respect the role of the legislature, although the very Burnham constitution the PPP so vigorously defends now after belittling it from 1980 to 1992, references the role of the legislature.
In any event, a legislature is a key facet of any democratic state, whether it has a functioning or valid constitution or not. Walking out conveys weakness, cowardice and disrespect.
Imagine a party with incredible executive power choosing to walk out of Parliament. No matter how upset and peeved the PPP was about the proceedings, it had a moral duty as the other arm of the state (the executive) to at least remain in Parliament and register its complaints.
In walking out, the PPP, with its Cabinet sitting in Parliament, has actually strengthened the argument for separation of powers to keep the executive out of Parliament. Further, in its departure from the Parliamentary sitting, the PPP acted like the opposition has acted for the past 20 years, despite the fact that the PPP is in power. That exudes weakness and exposes the PPP’s many contradictions in its use of power since November 2011.
Despite its hold on extreme executive powers, the PPP continues to mistreat the legislature, which was elected by the free and fair voting of the populace.
I suspect the PPP has decided this is their new strategy – to suddenly walk out of the legislature. But to walk out over a mundane matter of setting up a heritage commission – something that will benefit the entire nation – is dumbness at its best.
It is clear that these so-called leaders have no appreciation of the moment and are incapable of making the right decisions in the right circumstances. The PPP may be testing a new strategy here of trying to seek political pity from adopting a victimized stance, but this will backfire. Nobody respects an elected government, minority or not, walking away from Parliament, particularly in Guyana, where even some PPP supporters see the new dispensation in Parliament as a good, redemptive thing for the country.
The PPP continues to stumble from one blunder to another. With their own internal polls showing a precipitous decline from the high 40s to the low 40s in national voter support and the Amerindians likely to make a mass exodus from the PPP in light of the recent court case on Amerindian lands, this is a party that could fall from power tomorrow if an election is held. The only saving grace for the PPP is the PNC is unlikely to capture any of those Amerindian voters who will leave the PPP, but the PPP is on the brink right now and it continues to walk ever closer to the edge.
From alienating its core supporters from voting in their own party elections to mistreating Amerindians – with an Amerindian Act now exposed as a dagger in the back – the PPP is in its final throes.
M. Maxwell

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