The Opposition parties play a very significant role in democracy

Jul 17, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

Dr. Rouf Ahmad Bhat, wrote in the introduction to his Paper entitled ‘Role of Opposition Party in Democracy’ (the International Journal of Science and Research) that, ‘The opposition is as important as that of the ruling party. They ensure that the acts of the ruling party are not detrimental to the interest of the general public or nation at large. The role of the opposition party is not to oppose every decision of the ruling party. Rather, it is the duty of the opposition party to support the ruling party for the acts that are in the interest of the nation. The Opposition parties play a very significant role in a democracy as representatives of the people. The opposition act as the watchdog of the system. In such countries where there is a two-party system in vogue, the Opposition party forms a shadow cabinet to exercise vigil over the performance of the government.’
In a previous letter, I had stated that the PNC has never been a government ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’ and in this letter, I wish to submit that PNC has never been an opposition which reflects the will of the people. In fact, it has been equally worse as an Opposition if not more detrimental to this Nation.
Since the 1992 General Elections, the APNU had been in Opposition for 23 years and thereafter from August 2020 and they have continued to act against the interest of this nation, including their own members and supporters. An important point to note is that the PNC is the dominant political Party in the coalition and it is the PNC, which is the de facto opposition, as it was the de facto Party when in government. It is always the PNC in power or out of power; the other parties such as the AFC simply did the biddings and were simply window dressing.
It is an undeniable historical fact that the PNC never behaved as a responsible opposition and displayed this nefarious trait as soon as it lost an election. The PNC rigged all the elections: 1968, 1973, 1980 and 1985 and the Referendum of 1978 and for five long months attempted to rig the 2020 Elections. Another undeniable fact is that whenever the PPP won an election, the PNC greeted this with mayhem, violence, burning, looting and even murder. This was tried successfully again in 1998 when The Herdmanston Accord reduced the PPP’s term in Office by two years just to quell the violence against the Indians.
The Indo Guyanese ‘benefitted’ from being the prime target of looting, burning and race-based violence during the period 1964 to 1992 when the PNC was in Government, but this began with renewed vigour after the 1992 Elections and lasted intermittingly for 23 years until 2015, and then raised its ugly head again after the PPP won the 2020 Elections. The PPP supporters must pay dearly for voting their party into Government.
It is these two periods as the Opposition, which highlights the ineptitude and incompetence of the PNC to serve the Guyanese people. There is no disputing the mayhem and violence which marked its tenure as the Opposition but what is equally dangerous, is the penchant of the PNC in opposition to work relentlessly to derail the socio-economic programmes and policies which were implemented to better the lives of Guyanese. These acts were detrimental to our socio-economic development and should never have been done; this is not what a responsible opposition should have done. But it is the trademark of the PNC in opposition. They never supported the government and their foremost concern was to get into power, feather their own nests and rape the Treasury.
In a Democracy, an Opposition party should play a very significant ‘as representatives of the people.’ The opposition must ‘act as watchdog of the system’ but in Guyana, the opposition acts as a predator. If we can do a bit of transposition to Abraham Lincoln’s immortal Gettysburg speech, ‘this Nation must have a new birth of freedom, and the opposition must be an opposition of the people, by the people and for the people.’ We cannot afford to perish as a nation because the opposition is self-serving. The opposition must change its course. I encourage Mr. Harmon to read Dr. Bhat’s Paper. In the last Election, the APNU+AFC was elected by the people as the country’s opposition and they must honour that office, not dishonour it.

Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf

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