In November 2005, I was scheduled to make a statement in parliament but had to go to the hinterland. However, I thought that it was sufficiently important to be published as a letter in the Stabroek News since it appeared to me that the debate about the ongoing parliamentary reform and the increasing demand for more inclusive governance were being mistakenly conflated.
The English political essayist and critic Walter Bagot (1826-77) claimed that: “A parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people” and though an exaggeration, this view is normally the result of the kind of expectations we have of our Westminster-type parliamentary system. Thus, in the above letter, I argued that if the reforms then being proposed were implemented, our parliamentary system was poised for significant improvement but that we should not harbour over-ambitious expectations.
In the context of the demand for shared governance, I stated that “in my view, we will proceed with much more speed, if we all come to an agreement about the role and limits of the Westminster-type parliament. It is not, per se, a place for executive power-sharing of any