New parties combination

Feb 19, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

The leaders of three of the new parties have signaled their determination to go about parliamentary matters on their own, by making clear their outright rejection of any bonding that would give one of the front-running parties any desired governance edge. As I commend this frank statement of intent, as finalized in an executed Memorandum of Understanding (remember: these things are never binding), I wonder where the other new people are on this specific issue of joining or not joining with the one party that emerges ahead by a nostril flare.
As I have written repeatedly in several media forums, the new party with one seat is that, to use matrimonial terms, the catch to be pursued without letup; and, a new group with the Guyanese electoral miracle of two seats suddenly assumes the muscle tone and heft of a gangbuster, an unruly troublemaker, and a feared spoiler. To extend the matrimonial illustration: two seats make that party an unattached heiress worth the wooing.
Though I confess to some difficulty with vote blending and this business about left over votes, and their acceptability, it is my belief that in a razor-thin elections outcome, this (let’s call them) this joint venture combine of near equals, has the potential to be a significant parliamentary presence and a sustained disrupter when the usual tricks and gimmicks and high jinks are stealthily introduced, when the usual political horse-trading come into full flower, and when the government-opposition conspiracies are worked out to the advantage of one or the other, with the promise of the favour returned at another time.
For those who doubt the existence of the latter reality, I present the cry and lament of senior public servants, who are on the waiting end of material and believed winnable cases that have disappeared into the vacuum of needed ministerial clearance, which have not been forthcoming. Since favours were received from their predecessors when they were in office, the debts are filled these days through non-action. It is why the government is forced to eat crow, while the opposition gloats about no convictions; both sides know full well the reciprocally rewarding games that were and are still being played.
Thus, it comes as a breath of fresh air that three parties plan on turning their backs on any subtle or direct overtures from the post-March 2ndelectoral leader(s) to partner with one or the other. If the public stance committed to should prove to be airtight and watertight, then I think that there would be opportunity to play the gigantic ends against each other. Of course, the first hurdle is to win a seat or two, which looks rather remote at this stage, if the patterns and fixtures of Guyanese voting remain intact.
Should this political threesome manage to glean something out of nothing, then one of the tactics that it will have to perfect would be to gain rapid and authoritative familiarity with the compendium of parliamentary rules and procedures, especially the arcane ones. In so doing, and in mastering that art, there is the likelihood of tying up the political Gulliver (s) in knots and rendering them comatose. In other words, the new consortium may be able to stonewall matters to death, particularly those ones that reek and are found troubling, in their self-serving natures or their implications for wider society. With a former Speaker of the House in the midst, the troika should be well-equipped to cause some consternation and disruption in the proceedings.
On a different note, any successful new group has to possess and exhibit deftness in thinking on its feet and outwitting the crafty fellows looking to continue to hoodwink the beaten down Guyanese populace. I believe that it will have to barter in some situations. As an example-for those matters that are priorities for its supporters, and as embedded in its manifesto – the new people who end up in parliament will have to engage, as a practical matter in legislative quid pro quos, so as to prove that it is not only about blocking and frustrating for the sake of both. It must be able to demonstrate that it influenced this or that amendment, led the charge in defeating those that were controversial, and that it worked to get components in its manifesto completed.
Also, any new group must manifest a willingness to lead the way in sanity, civility, and dignity in the house of the people, as their business is being conducted. Whether they are up to these hard challenges is another story. I have some faith in the veteran but pronounced uncertainty about the others. I hope that we shall see more than the light. I trust that we shall see the new people for who and what they really are in the crucibles of tests to come. The first one is dated March 3rd.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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