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THE PPP SHOULD STAY OUT OF PARLIAMENT

Jun 24, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The decision of the PPPC not to enter the National Assembly may be a blessing in disguise. It certainly allows the new government an undisturbed honeymoon, and the opposition an opportunity to adjust to a role unfamiliar to it for over twenty-three years.
The people of Guyana had become tired on the “no” politics of the National Assembly. They had also become tired of the PPPC. More than half of the voters decided that they would vote for APNU+AFC. This ended the 23-year rule of the PPPC, but let no one be deceived into believing that the people were happy with what was happening in the parliament and the absolute lack of political cooperation that was taking place there.
Many had anticipated that things would have been different because one party held political power and the other legislative power. It was expected that this would have led to a situation in which there would have been less fighting. Some people even said that the results of the 2011 elections were the best thing that could have happened to Guyana.
It turned out to be the worst thing. In fact, so terrible was that experience that some people said that they never want a minority government again. The AFC no doubt also recognized this and decided that the 2015 elections either had to be the PPPC or the combined opposition. It turned out to be the latter. This is how we have a new government.
Right now, therefore, in so far as the people are concerned, the PPPC can stay out of the National Assembly as long as it likes. As an opposition party without a majority, it is not going to have a great impact on anything.
It is always good to have another view of things, but the way technology has emerged and the many avenues that are now available to opposition parties, the PPP really does not need parliament to be able to criticize the government or offer a different vision of things. It can do this, as it has been doing of recent, by its weekly press conferences.
It may not have dawned on some persons as yet, but by hosting weekly press conferences, the PPPC is adopting the role of an opposition party. The fact, therefore, that the party is not in parliament does not mean that it does not consider itself the de facto opposition in Guyana.
The new government has now awakened to the reality as to how the bureaucracy works. Things take time. Legislation takes time to be drafted, to be redrafted, to be deliberated on, to be laid in the National Assembly and then passed. The three-month period that the opposition set itself to do a series of things is much too short. It needs more time.
Not having to deal with the histrionics of the PPPC will be a blessing in disguise.  Sittings of the National Assembly will become less combative. Sittings will be shorter because fewer persons will have to speak on any issue. In fact there may be no need for anyone to speak at all. This will be a far cry from what took place during the three-year period from 2011 to 2014 when the parliament was prorogued.
For the PPP, not having to go to parliament means that its members can concentrate on rebuilding the party. They have bigger problems to attend to than deciding who should be their parliamentary representatives. They have to decide who will lead them into the next elections. They have to decide how to win back greater support, because they no longer command the slim majority that they always commanded at elections.
They have to decide how the party will survive. When you are in power everyone throws money your way. But when you are in the opposition and cannot do anything for financiers, this is when political parties need their commercial arms. Unfortunately, the PPP was so sure that it would rule forever that it gave up its commercial sources of revenue.
The PPP therefore is shaky and does not know whether it can financially survive. It therefore has its work cut out and does not need the distractions of parliament. But then again, the parliamentary stipend may be the only income coming the way of some of its members for a long, long time.

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