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The way we are

Nov 01, 2013 Editorial

 

 

Two significant events occurred recently in Guyana: The visit of Speaker Jennifer Geerlings-Simons and a parliamentary delegation from Suriname, and a conference of Presiding Officers and Clerks of the Caribbean, the Americas and the Atlantic Region of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
We welcomed all the distinguished guests and are confident that they enjoyed not only the warm hospitality of our people but the beauty of our historic architecture and our tropical landscape.
For our neighbours to the East, they would have seen the many familiar relics of Dutch colonization, including names of villages and towns, and they would know that ours is a shared history and common aspirations as well. The Corentyne River does not divide Guyana and Suriname, but unites us as sister nations, as was once stated by President Desi Bouterse.
Our guests from the Commonwealth area also share, mostly, a history of British colonialism with Guyana, and they too would have seen on their visit the commonality in language, culture, traditions, government system and institutions.
But they would have looked beyond history and form, trying to find out more about the way we are, and whether we have experiences that they could emulate and share.
Both delegations had a common interest in our governance system, particularly our parliamentary set up and practice. They were intrigued by the fact that Guyana has a hybrid Westminster and republican system, with an elected parliament and an executive president.
Suriname, for example, has a mixed system in which elected MPs are chosen via first-past-the-post constituency and proportional representation, and the president is elected by a majority in Parliament. In the Anglophone Commonwealth states, there is routinely government headed by a Prime Minister from political parties that won majority votes at periodic elections or from post-electoral coalition combinations.
In Guyana, our Constitution allows the formation of government by a party that received a plurality of votes at an election, as the case is at present where, with less than 50% of electoral support, the PPP/C takes both the government and the Presidency.
The President exercises executive authority and could, and does, veto measures passed in Parliament by the majority of elected MPs grouped in A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC). A glaring example is the refusal by the President to assent to four pieces of legislation – the so-called Local Government Bills – which would enhance our system of local democracy.
There is a broad cynical view that the ruling PPP/C, having been in continuous power for over two decades, does not want local elections, as these could attract tragic political consequences for the incumbent, as was evident in the results from nearby Trinidad and Tobago, where the opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) romped home to a landslide victory at last week’s local government poll.
With a prophetic ring, the PNM leader Dr. Keith Rowley declared that “victory brings victory”, which is an allusion of what could happen should national elections take place in the twin-island Republic.
Local government elections in Guyana under a reformed system could be a referendum on the PPP/C, which is besieged by allegations of widespread corruption, so much so, that after 21 years in office, the ruling party has only now seen it fit to appoint an Integrity Committee to probe its own leaders. It is like closing the gate when the horses have run away.
Our guests would have been intrigued by the denial of access by the Parliamentary Opposition to the state media and judicial challenges against major decisions taken by the parliamentary majority that did not find favour with the government.
They may not all be amused by the way we are, with a parliament tottering on the edge of gridlock, a parliament that does not have an independent Budget Office or Legal Officer, and a President that defies the will of the majority.

 

 

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