The election of a minority government in Guyana has been a collective shock to all our systems. No one expected that the voting would have been thus divided. No doubt, the ruling PPP/C, what with its fête-like campaigns fully expected to continue to rule the roost. The opposition coalition, APNU would have been hoping for a 180-degree turn and the AFC likely hoped that the inroads it had been making would have been reflected at the polls.
The results have left them all wanting more, but have shown the ordinary citizen that it is s/he is who has the capability to bring about change through the way s/he exercises his/her franchise. This should serve as a powerful lesson to all. Of course, it is obvious that race-based voting is still very much in vogue, but if the pundits are correct and the younger generation are the ones likely to put an end to it, then sooner rather than later, parties have to start looking ahead to courting the thousands of young people who will be eligible to cast ballots come next elections.
If these youths are more likely to vote on issues, will the current situation not colour the way they view politics and the politicians who in the not too distant future will attempt to woo their votes? The drawn-out haggling over who should be Speaker of the National Assembly is ugly and could sound a death knell to the kind of cooperation one hopes to see in the House. It also demonstrates a significant lack of trust among not only the political parties, all of which have a history, but also among their male leaders. We have not seen any women involved in the current negotiations, if they can be called that.
The PPP/C expects its former Speaker to be allowed to continue and its stance on this appears to be implacable. Neither of the other two parties in the opposition is open to this and began negotiations to come up with a consensus candidate whom they could vote in with their joint 33-seat majority. The AFC has put forward one nominee and the APNU two nominees, all three of which have hit the proverbial brick wall with the same force that the impasse hit the media. As a result, there is now a nasty mess that could prove a bit difficult to clean up.
But this must be done and the name of the game should now be compromise. If there cannot be a consensus Speaker, there ought to be a compromise Speaker, which means the parties will have to climb down a bit from their respective lofty perches and come to an arrangement in the interest of the people who put them there. And while we will all be waiting with bated breath for this to happen, it would be in the best interest of all concerned if the negotiations on this happened within the boundaries of confidentiality, rather than in the media. While the salacious details about who folded first, who proposed and who accepted would make interesting reading, it is not important to nation building and could derail the cohesiveness they each claim to seek.
It is time for the egos to step back and let the superegos step up; this selection process could certainly benefit from dollops of conscience and morality, not to mention trust. These men who would have us believe they would do right by us, who have put themselves in a position where they expect us to trust them need to show some indication that they can trust themselves and each other. It is time to put an end to the squabbling. Guyana has had some 12 years of that kind of behaviour. Enough. Do the gentlemanly thing; it’s what we will expect from our politicians from now on.
