PPP-PNC shared governance in action 

Oct 27, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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(Kaieteur News) – I am compelled to congratulate the PPP Govt’s leadership for its stunning resourcefulness.  It took a while, went over my head, but the pieces fall into place.  I look on and wave on the PNC Opposition leadership, and I say right on.  For those Guyanese who now see glimmers of PPP-PNC shared governance in action remember to collect a prize.  For sure, it is an unofficial, unsanctioned, unannounced kind of shared governance worked out between the PPP and PNC.  But shared governance is what is in motion.  Whoever said that the PNC lost the September 1^st elections now have to humble themselves and eat sawdust.  I eat.

The first clue came from PPP VP, Dr. Jagdeo.  His preference is to work with the PNC.  So, it was said, so it is done, with shared governance gaining a footing.

The second clue of this peculiar form of shared governance that hit Guyanese voters’ plumb on the nose was the PNC’s gymnastics with RDCs (Regional Democratic Councils), the jockeying between the contestants for chairing roles.  When Guyanese expectations were that the PNC would go one way, it went another way.  The old way, it is.  It is down with WIN, and up with the PPP-PNC Coalition.  An inspiring state of affairs long clamored for, but not under such hazy circumstances.  I fully understand that there may be no stomach for dealing with a certain kind of people, but what to make of this new stomach that the PNC now displays?  All those who jumped ship prior to the elections must be having a long laff, for look at those crossing over now to the land of milk and honey.  Just so all are on the same page: it’s the PPP controlled land of milk and nectar.

The third clue came in the outline of that dubious beast, that unmitigated horror, labeled campaign financing.  Though heard before, I almost choked when I heard from the PNC in ringing terms.  NO! NO! NO! to the disclosure of campaign financing donors.  If the donors were run-of-the mill Guyanese donating a hundred dollars that they really can’t spare, or the loyal with a thousand-dollar bill parted with in the hope of being remembered, there would be no objection to disclosure of donor identities.  But there was the PNC standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the PPP, marching in lockstep with it: no to disclosure of campaign financing donors.

What is that if not a meeting of the minds on a very sensitive and controversial issue, so that the self-protection of both the PPP and PNC are all but guaranteed.  I regret having to say this, but that posture of non-disclosure just ripped asunder Guyana’s anti-money laundering law.  What kind of money and what kind of donors have to be shielded at all costs, is my quiet inquiry, and with both the PPP and PNC putting aside their reciprocal hatreds and speaking with one voice?  No to campaign financing disclosure.  It seems that Dr. Jagdeo scored a winner after a long drought. Recall from above.  Cast aside festering hatreds, and good things will happen, since his preference was to work with the PNC.  Figure that one out.  I try to figure out the bargaining chips involved, other than covering the rear ends of both parties, that are big in the donation and collection hustle.  The PNC stands to gain another feather.  A friend of the private sector, it has become.  Ha, ha.  This country is sicker than a mule that overdid it with molasses.

The fourth clue that pointed to shared PPP-PNC governance was startling, a brilliant testimony to PPP virtuosity.  Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Yonette Edwards-Cummings is proceeding on early retirement leave.  Have a good one, Madame Chancellor.  In less than the time it took to count from one to two, there was Excellency Ali firing off his first communication to the PNC leadership since his reelection.  The call is for agreement on closing out the long stalemate over making substantive appointments to the top judicial posts of chancellor and chief justice of Guyana.  Neater than the scales on a serpent’s head or a crocodile’s back, I say.  If there are Guyanese that cannot anticipate PNC leader, Aubrey Norton, agreeing to the names identified for chancellor and CJ, then they have lost more than their marbles.  In the language favored by politicians, it would be sold as the art of compromising to reach consensus.  In the language long utilised by Guyana’s Kaieteur News, it is tek haff, leff haff.  Whatever it is, I am struck dumb.

Mr. Norton is on his way out as the Opposition Leader, but he is pushed to the top of the local world.  Holdoff parliament, stonewall WIN’s Mohamed, and workout shared governance between the PPP and PNC.  God bless this paradise lost.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• GHK Lall, PNC, PPP, shared governance, We Invest in Nationhood

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