Dear Editor,
Shared governance to serve the peculiar ethnic and political circumstances of Guyana was a popular cry during the Jagdeo administration; the cries however appear to have diminished since Donald Ramotar has been installed as President.
I felt, however, that there was a bigger need for shared governance in Guyana after the last general elections gave the PPP/C the government and the two opposition parties − APNU and the AFC − control of parliament.
Hence, I was extremely pleased to have read last weekend two separate articles on the topic. in the first, parliamentarian Deborah Backer in a statement reminded everyone that her party still had an interest in shared governance, while the second publication had the Chairman of Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), Mzalendo Kibunjia advocating a “negotiated democracy” as a way to stem the deep-seated differences among Kenya’s various ethnic groups. Mr Kibunjia thought it was necessary to issue that call because of a resumption of ethnic mobilization in Kenya for electoral purposes.
Editor, the contentions of Ms Backer and Mr Kibunjia have stirred me to rekindle my calls for shared governance in Guyana, because I am convinced that this would go a far way in solving inter-party conflicts within Guyana’s parliament and reducing the country’s institutionalised ethnic and racial differences and competition.
Yours faithfully,
Morris Wilson
