Dear Editor,
Instead of shared governance, which is notoriously difficult to accomplish in ethnically fractured societies such as Guyana, minority governments are easier to achieve as they are achieved by selective voting. Voting for a minority government requires courage and maturity from a sizeable core of the electorate willing to change the system for the better. A minority government occurs when a political party wins the election but fails to win a majority (50% or more) of the votes. How will this work in Guyana? The political reality in Guyana is that the PPP will command the most votes in the 2011 election. Therefore, PPP supporters hold the key to delivering a minority government in Guyana. A minority government will result if two things happen: (1) a sizeable percentage of PPP supporters just don’t vote; and (2) a sizeable percentage of PPP voters vote for another political organization such as Ramjattan’s AFC. A minority government is more likely to occur if the second scenario happens. Developed democracies such as some European countries, New Zealand, Canada and Australia have successfully operated under minority governments.
Minority governments prevent the absolutism of power that obtains in Guyana. The government is forced to collaborate with the opposition parties. Fears over no-confidence motions push the government to perform or perish. The excesses of those who thieve, plunder and abuse are checked. Political parties in minority governance situations become desperate for electoral approval. This forces greater public interaction, accountability, transparency and harsher action against misconduct. Minority government propels parties to work harder to seek elusive majorities. A sitting minority government that loses the support of the public due to scandals and similar fiascos can be forced to resign or to call early elections. Opposition parties with a majority cannot bring down sitting minority governments recklessly, for they too will face punishment in the ensuing elections for their conduct. If the electorate is disinclined to elect majority governments again for the forseeable future, mainstream parties will tually fragment and splinter and new political movements will emerge to seek the majority endorsement from voters. This phenomenon will seriously weaken the strict racial voting paradigm. A minority government in the context of Guyana squarely puts the power back into the hands of the people. Appeasing and listening to the voters becomes paramount. Voters will possess the power to punish parties.
Minority governments will eventually lead to greater power-sharing as parties are forced by political circumstances to work together for the benefit of the entire nation and all of its peoples. Minority government in Guyana offers the potential for significant reform. Sitting minority governments will undertake reforms to try to win a majority. The opposition majority will extract significant reform from the minority government in exchange for keeping it in power. The biggest danger to minority government in Guyana is politically indecent coalitions and mergers for the sake of gaining absolute power. That happened in 1964 with the PNC and UF. However, 2011 will be markedly different if a minority government situation emerges for the simple reason that the political atmosphere is decidedly different. A minority government in 2011 will not be the result of racial voting on the back of racial strife as occurred in 1964, but the result of a stunning departure from racial voting. The difference cannot be starker and more illuminating for the future of this country in 2011. Political entities that choose to pursue politically depraved mergers in this atmosphere after the visible gains of a shift from racial voting will be committing political suicide and will face political exile by voters as punishment for their egregiousness. If parties do merge when the electorate clearly wanted a minority government in a non-coalition landscape, it will foster the rise of new political movements willing to listen to the voters and will create fragmentation of the existing mainstream parties, which will further benefit the country. If parties cannot tame their lust for power and merge for the sake of power when the electorate demand their separation, others will rise to take their place and the nation will finally begin to emerge into a new dawn of political freedom. A minority government for the PPP in 2011 is actually a good thing for the party itself and for the nation. Those PPP supporters who valiantly vote for it by not voting or voting elsewhere will be heralding a change this country has been dying for. The entire nation and its future will be indebted to them forever.
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell