Dear Editor,
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate President David Granger and his new APNU+AFC coalition government. This is indeed a historic moment for Guyana and it would be interesting to see how the coalition will work as one government.
The coalition is a partnership, and as a Partnership Practitioner, I am particularly interested in how the coalition can be successful. I believe that a critical task for President Granger would be to get his coalition government to work as one unit and to manage and sustain the partnership over the next five years.
Having won the 2015 general and regional elections, the coalition has proven that together they can accomplish a common goal, great! But how will they manage and sustain this partnership now? I would therefore like to provide some information which I think the coalition may find useful.
Firstly, they need to identify what is the added value that each of the six parties (each partner) bring to the coalition. This aspect is very important so that each partner can develop a clear understanding of how they complement the partnership and have an appreciation of the added value other partners bring to the process. If this understanding is clear, it will reduce competition in the coalition. Each partner has strengths and weaknesses; thus the focus of the individual political parties should be on complementing as against competition, since none of them could have achieved the election results without the other.
For example, I learnt that the APNU will be managing some ministries and the AFC will be managing others. The focus therefore should not be on whether the ministries which are managed by one party are managed better that those managed by the other. This focus should rather be on having one efficient government which is made up of all of the ministries.
Another key task for the new President is to build a diverse and effective team. The team should consist of five categories of people − the initiators, coordinators, implementers, strategists/thinkers and finishers. President Granger in my assessment, is a very good strategist/thinker, therefore for him to have a good finish, he needs excellent initiators, coordinators, implementers and finishers on his team. Nevertheless, it may take some time for him to build the right team.
Partnerships are built, managed and sustained on three key principles – equity, transparency and mutual benefit, therefore managing and sustaining the partnership in the new government will require that keen attention be placed on these.
Partnerships are also essentially based on relationships. Mutual benefit therefore is imperative and this will help to build strong social capital within the government. If there is strong social capital within the coalition this will be transferred into the wider society. The greater the cohesion in the coalition, the greater the cohesion will be in the society.
Hence this brings me to the aspect of the individual and societal goals in the partnership. While each political party joined the coalition to achieve one societal goal – to win the 2015 Elections, form the government and implement their Manifesto; the goals, aims and objectives of the individual parties should not be lost. If the individual goals, aims and objectives of the various parties are not met, this can become a source of contention in the partnership/coalition government.
Also very important, the political parties must understand that they are not equal partners. While there should be equity in the partnership/government, equity must not be mistaken for equality. Equity means that each party must have an equal stake in the partnership/government but they are not necessarily equal.
In order to manage and sustain the partnership the new president has to identify persons or organizations who can provide the following skills and keep them very close to his fingertips. Facilitation: this skill may be needed as the partnership/government undertakes successful convening and relationship-building, particularly in the early stages.
Negotiation: this skill will enable the government to achieve more win-win results within the partnership/coalition. Since the government is made up of several partners with diverse underlying interests, skills for building consensus will be critical.
As the coalition government progresses, the need will arise more and more for persons with coaching skills both within and outside of government.
Mediation skills will also be crucial to the sustainability of the coalition government. The government will have crisis situations and will encounter obstacles over the next five years; mediation skills will therefore be very important during these periods to assist the coalition government to successfully navigate through the challenges. These skills should be within the government and also available externally.
Finally, I will be watching this coalition government very closely as they manage and strive to sustain the partnership. As I was standing at the inauguration ceremony at the Parliament Building last Saturday, when the President was greeting the crowds who were on the other side of the fence, a young man commented, “One thing about this man, he is more leader than a president.” This was a very good observation by this young man and that is indeed an extremely valuable quality President Granger has and will need to make this coalition government successful.
Yours faithfully,
Audreyanna Thomas
