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PM slams call for shared governance
– insists political cooperation is the way forward
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds has slammed opposition talks about shared governance even as he insisted that such a move could simply mean “a shifting of the contentions and abuse in this House to the Cabinet room…and just imagine a Cabinet that is performing the same way or with the same relations as we have been having here in this House.”
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds
Hinds vocalised these convictions Tuesday evening as he delivered his contribution to the final day of debating the 2013 National budget.
He alluded to his belief that any attempt to force shared governance could in fact easily return Guyana to the 1950s, when according to the Prime Minister “our differences – some explicit, some implicit, some obvious, others unrecognised – they would likely occur again… situations and events which let loose feelings of betrayal, ungratefulness and suchlike.”
Moreover, Hinds announced that it is “for the sake of the youths of today” that he has endorsed remarks made by one of his colleagues, on the Government side, that moves be made to again bring to the House, Government’s proposal for building trust for political cooperation which was first tabled in 2003.
“We think that is the way forward; the risk is still too great. We do not want a repeat of history,” Hinds asserted.
According to him, much has been said about the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC)’s reluctance, even aversion, to engage and trust but according to him “we of the PPPC have been burnt. Even during the last budget in the engagement to begin a reform of the provision of electricity in Linden…we have been burnt.”
The Prime Minister noted that while that occurrence was limited, it was in fact a pretty painful one, which he insisted was a “moral pervading, painful experience.”
Nonetheless, he disclosed that there has been much talk about the need for not just shared governance, but even shared government.
According to Hinds, it has even been suggested that the president should have made a Cabinet of persons from all parties; a consideration which he noted was certainly appealing.
“It’s certainly an idea that… who could dare speak out against it…and no doubt these calls were well intended…but there are major dangers and unanswered questions in this sort of shared Government.”
As he confidently deliberated, Hinds turned his attention to the late President Desmond Hoyte whom he claimed argued quite profoundly against shared Government before he too eventually gave in to opposite arguments of the People’s National Congress.
According to Hinds, shared governance and shared responsibility are not beyond the ruling party, which he noted, had offered critical support to another President, Forbes Burnham and the PNC, even as it opposed critical exposure at a time when “we of the PPP were being cheated and abused, but also a time when we put Guyana first.”
“We don’t think shared governance in the sense of shared ministries is the critical thing for Guyana, for there are real differences in views, in approaches, and in results between our different parties.”
Hinds also made reference to the difficulties with financial discipline, even as he insisted that “there is a big difference between our parties…there are real differences between our parties”.
Moreover, the Prime Minister noted that democracy is nestled in the attempts to work out different views or even as those views arise, as efforts are made to grow and develop.
“We see this as more important and indeed as a first step. The development of trust, in an atmosphere in which we all can live under the Guyana umbrella, aware of our differences, yet extending and accepting hands of assistance from each other, and ready to learn from and teach each other.”
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