Great Presidents are an endangered species

Sep 08, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Donald Ramotar stands on the cusp of being a great President. Never mind the fact that he heads a minority government that faces a most belligerent opposition whose antics in the National Assembly have led to questions being asked as to how much progress has been made since the 2011 elections.
Donald Ramotar stands on the cusp of greatness. All he has to do is to form a coalition government with the opposition.
Never mind the fact that the opposition parties are likely to demand that the PPP take a minority role in the government. With his party in a minority within the coalition government, Donald Ramotar can emerge as a great President.
President Ramotar has received unsolicited advice. He has been told that in order to become a great president he should form a coalition government with the opposition. He should ignore that advice for a number of reasons.
Firstly, great are an endangered species in Guyana. This is because of constitutional changes that now allow for a president to serve only two elected terms.
It is hard for any President, more so one whose first term is as head of a minority government to aspire to greatness. Eight years is just shy of what is needed to achieve great accomplishments economically and socially. It is therefore hard to imagine a great president emerging with two terms.
Of course a president can do great things politically. He can for example unite the country on a common platform of development and democracy. He can even unite the country on an ideological platform. But he cannot become great by simply forming a coalition government unless that coalition government is formed on the basis of some platform.
What is the platform around which this coalition is to be founded amongst the opposition parties? These parties have not defined themselves ideologically. It is the issue that they miss. Therefore there cannot be a common ideological platform unless the parties begin to explore their own ideological orientation to seek some common ground. This is not going to happen with the political parties in Guyana.
The parties of course may agree to a consensus programme based on an agenda rather than awaiting the development of ideological synergies.
But what is this common programme around which this can be established. And if the parties are not talking long and consistently enough amongst themselves how can this common agenda emerge?
It is respectfully submitted that arriving at a common and agreed agenda amongst the political parties is an unrealistic goal.
There is no motivation to pursue this objective since the opposition parties are quite comfortable with their one seat majority and the effect the use of this majority has had on the government.
The government on the other hand sees the results of the 2011 election as an aberration which is not likely to repeat itself. They believe that the ruling party was robbed of a seat because the votes at seventeen polling stations in Region 3 were not counted.
Thirdly, the historical record of coalition governments in Guyana is far from encouraging. It was a coalition government between the PNC and the United Force that ousted the PPP from power in 1964. But it was always, even in those days of the so-called political pragmatism, a shaky coalition. The coalition came close on many occasions to being dissolved.
It took in one instance the intervention of US diplomats to prevent the UF from walking out of the coalition government. And when that term was over and it as time for the 1968 elections, Burnham announced emphatically that he would never again lead the PNC into a coalition government.
The PNC is not interested in a coalition government headed by any other party. The PNC is interested in power sharing on its terms. It has said that it will invite the PPP into its government should it win an election.
But it has announced no formula for the representation of other parties within its power sharing government. And if one knows the PNC, then any involvement would have to be on the PNC terms. This is how the PNC has always operated.
Against this pessimistic background, Donald Ramotar is never going to be a great president. The political and economic context simply will not allow this to happen. But he will always be a great man because he has a big, decent and honest heart.

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Great Presidents are an endangered species

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