Political unity should be placed on the front burner

Nov 16, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The government has moved from the idea of shared governance to the ideal of social cohesion. When APNU was in opposition, it had indicated, repeatedly, that no matter what the outcome of the 2015 elections was, it was committed to a principle of shared governance.
The APNU+AFC coalition got into power by the slimmest of margins. The narrowness of its victory was the perfect condition in which to advance its idea of shared governance, one that predated the assumption to leadership of the PNCR by David Granger.
There has not been much talk, however, about shared governance. Instead a new ministry was launched. It was called the Ministry of Social Cohesion and its work is to promote social cohesion in Guyana.
It can be argued, of course, that shared governance is a subset of social cohesion. But this point is not being made by the government. We have seen little examples of political cooperation, even at the legislative level.
The opposition is clearly in no mood to join with the government in any power-sharing arrangement. But the government itself has demonstrated little enthusiasm for shared governance.
A good place to begin should have been in the National Assembly. But there the waters have been testy, with the opposition recently accusing the government of trying to prevent it from having a members’ day, a charge which the government has denied.
Social cohesion is a much broader concept than power sharing. One is yet to see, however, much mention of the need for political cooperation in all the jazz about social cohesion. Social cohesion has been social not political, at least not as yet.
Its newness to the local landscape has caught everyone off guard. When everyone expected APNU+AFC to be pushing shared governance, it dropped this completely new idea on the Guyanese population, a population tired of the constant political bickering. People want an end to the political bickering and while they do not expect that this can be achieved overnight, they do wish to at least see some steps in this direction. They have not seen this as yet, in terms of what has been done by the Ministry of Social Cohesion.
The Ministry has been distributing buses, bicycles and boats to transport school children. This is work which could have been done by the Ministry of Education. It is not clear how this is part of a distinct social cohesion agenda in Guyana. The fact that these buses, bicycles and boats are being donated, has led to the notion that this is the ministry of donations.
There is much more work to be done to build social cohesion and to ensure that as part of this social cohesion, there is less political bickering and more political cooperation. The litmus test for social cohesion in the final analysis is about political cooperation. Even shared governance may be much too ambitious to achieve in the first term of an APNU+AFC administration.
The Ministry of Social Cohesion should explore possibilities of building trust amongst the political parties in Guyana, with the aim of improving political cooperation. A small step in this regard would be extending invitations to all political parties outside of the government to be part of national events, not just as spectators but as participants.
The political parties, outside of the government, including the opposition, should be incorporated in state events. If the government is to speak, the opposition should be allowed to speak also. It may seem like a small step, but it will be a giant leap for political cooperation if this happens.
Secondly, the government should do more to prevent religious division. The continuing division over the date for Diwali is not healthy for social cohesion in the country. Next year, this problem should be avoided. The consultations should begin now with the aim of bringing about a resolution. The Ministry of Social Cohesion should invite respected Guyanese Hindus such as Yesu Persaud and Hemraj Kissoon, to mediate the dispute which now threatens to run into a third year.
Thirdly, important institutions of the state which work to resolve differences should be reconvened. There has been a call for the reconstitution of the Ethnic Relations Commission. This should have long been a priority of the new administration. The government has said that it will soon appoint an Ombudsman. This is commendable, since it is an important step in ensuring administrative justice.
Finally shared governance, as a specific focus of social cohesion, should be placed back on the front burner. It is not going to be easy to achieve, but its achievement is not going to happen if it continues to be put on the back burner.
In a country like Guyana, the bottom line is there can be no social cohesion without political unity. Social cohesion must not be used to obfuscate the ultimate goal of political unity, which everyone says is necessary.

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One thought on “Political unity should be placed on the front burner”

Surujpaul Rampersaud November 16, 2016 at 8:05 am

Come on brother, paramountcy is alive and kicking in Guyana. Your call is good but it is like throwing water on the back of a duck. The current government feels that its one seat majority in parliament is the referendum to do what it wants.

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