PPP’s majority rule eroded its traditional policy of compromise

Mar 09, 2014 News

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…flawed principle of executive entitlement has not worked – Ramkarran

Compromise is the only way the Guyana Government will be able to move forward with the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill (AML/CFT) in the National Assembly.
This is according to former Executive Member of the ruling Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) and Former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran in his latest writings posted on his conversationtree.org outlet.

According to Ramkarran, compromise was practiced by the party in years gone by but because of its years in office as a majority, this practice receded.
Ramkarran said that the PPP learned the lesson that politics is the art of compromise and further it was the basis of its early leadership.
“It was attempted during the crisis years of the early 1960s, then during authoritarian rule…Compromise allowed it to negotiate around oppression and build alliances for survival.”
Ramkarran said that, ignoring this history, pro-PPP/Government criticisms greeted his assertion of compromise last week in his article “The chickens have come home to roost.”
“One critic accused me of adopting ‘false equivalencies’ between Government and Opposition, forgetting that the legislature, in the expression of its majority will, is of equal status with the executive.”
Ramkarran said that another critic suggested he should stop recommending compromises and get a ‘backbone.’
“Both ignored the fact that the Government holds a minority position in the National Assembly, cannot get its legislation passed without Opposition support, and itself offered compromise solutions to Opposition demands.”
He said that at the other end of the spectrum, Professor Clive Thomas of the WPA, castigated A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). “What Professor Thomas believes to be its intention to support the AML/CFT Bill…Professor Thomas urges that the Opposition should demand even more concessions from the Government on a wider range of issues.”
Ramkarran suggests however that both extremes, if allowed to prevail, will get Guyana nowhere and will earn goodwill for neither Government nor Opposition.
“For my critics, if there is a better plan than my own to keep the PPP in office, to restore the confidence of its supporters and to recover its majority at the next elections, they should outline it…Their suggestion that the PPP should huff and puff at the Opposition and blow them away is nothing but puerility.”
In his writings, Ramkarran chronicled the fact that compromise was sought by the PPP throughout its history.
He said that the policy of compromise led Cheddi Jagan to sign the Sandys Letter in 1963 conceding to the British the right to mediate the differences between the Government and Opposition.
“In the early 1970s the PPP supported the nationalization process and openings to Cuba and China…In 1975 the PPP offered the PNC ‘critical support.’ In 1977 the PPP offered the National Patriotic Front, the effect of which was to concede the presidency to the PNC…The creation of citizens’ unity and political unity in the struggle against the referendum in 1978/1979 could not have been achieved without compromises…Unlike the 1955–1962 period, a creative mix of support for progressive policies, efforts to compromise and struggle against oppression after 1964, preserved the existence and integrity of the PPP.”
Ramkarran recalled too that after the gross rigging of the 1973 elections the PPP made compromises to its political positions and programmes to establish unity with various opposition groups, the last one being the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy (PCD) in 1985, once again after the massive rigging of the 1985 elections.
He said that only months before, the PPP was in negotiation with the PNC for a political solution, which were discontinued by Hoyte after Burnham died.
After compromise talks in 1991/2 failed, the PPP sought an arrangement with the GUARD movement and accepted Sam Hinds as Prime Ministerial candidate and a number of non-PPP members on its electoral list, according to Ramkarran.
He noted that recently the General Secretary of the PPP, Clement Rohee, called for the establishment of national democracy and a broad left front which are old PPP policies that can only be achieved by unifying disparate groups and organizations by compromise.
Ramkarran noted that a major compromise to save its Government by giving up two years of its term was made by the PPP under the Herdmanston Accord in 1998.
According to Ramkarran, apart from that instance, with PPP majorities at every election since 1992, except the last, majoritarianism prevailed and compromise receded.
“Agreements with Desmond Hoyte and later with Robert Corbin were not implemented. The creative application of compromise, now needed more than ever before, has been jettisoned.”
Ramkarran said that it is hoped that at Babu John during the course of today, in celebrating the life of Cheddi Jagan, there will be reflection on the flexible political strategies he bequeathed, which included negotiation and compromise, while adhering to political principles.
According to Ramkarran “In present conditions the Government needs the support of the Opposition…In the absence of serious or creative compromise for two years, surprise, surprise, its strategy based on the flawed principle of executive entitlement, has not worked…My critics suggest more of the same. I suggest that something else be tried.”

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