Dear Editor,
Guyana needs power-sharing among the parties if it is to realize its true potential. No single party or race dominating the political landscape can govern the country to make it realize its economic potential as borne out by data. Thus, the People’s Progressive Party should not have rejected the (half-hearted) invitation from the ruling APNU+AFC coalition to hold discussions on power-sharing. Although APNU+AFC did not explain what they meant by power-sharing and how exactly it is to be implemented, the PPP’s rejection of the offer was a political blunder. The coalition so far by its actions has not shown it is serious about power-sharing. It is in a double speak. Had the PPP accepted the invitation to discuss power-sharing, it would have been in a strong position to point to all the policy decisions of the coalition that betray its publicly announced position on power-sharing.
The PPP haggled over the representative, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, of the coalition pointing out he is a mere ethnic token, not representative of the coalition, and that he has no powers to make a decision. But the coalition appointed the Prime Minister as their negotiator and the PPP should have accepted him and held discussions. If he was ineffective then they could have announced it to the nation and demanded a replacement or “no more discussions”. The PPP cannot dictate who should be the coalition negotiator on power-sharing unless they have a better proposal. And if it is that Mr Nagamootoo now has power, then the PPP should not have rejected a meeting but sent a low-level representative to the discussions.
The real reason why PPP did not want to hold discussions with Mr Nagamootoo is bad blood. The PPP cannot forgive him for leaving his natural party, the PPP, and linking up with the PNC to oust the PPP from power. It was the popular, grass-roots Nagamootoo who pulled mass support from the PPP in 2011 and brought about its defeat, with a repeat in 2015. If the PPP really had an interest in power-sharing, and it did not want to hold a meeting with the Prime Minister, it could have proposed a meeting between President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo or General Secretaru Clement Rohee. Instead, it flatly rejected the offer for a national meeting to discuss power-sharing.
By its behaviour, it seems that the PPP is not interested in power-sharing. And neither is the APNU+AFC, judging by its actions. During the campaign, the coalition made a commitment that should it win, it would immediately call in the PPP leadership and include it in the formation of the government. That has not happened. The coalition has not made any serious offers of ministries and other positions to the PPP; it did not say all positions were up for negotiation. Power-sharing entails some level of equitable arrangement among the parties on behalf of their supporters. A party winning almost 50% of the votes cannot be lured into power-sharing governance with 5% of the cabinet or government positions. That in and of itself showed the coalition is not serious about sharing powers. In such a scenario, it will fail, and the country will retrogress.
The PPP remains the largest party, but it will be very difficult for it to win an election outright as it lacks an attractive presidential candidate who can lure cross-racial support. PNC supporters will not defect from their natural party to the PPP as political history has shown. So the party has to begin to think of a national unity government and to re-attract those political forces it alienated and marginalized that caused it to lose so much support to the AFC and APNU in 2011 and 2015. While much of the defected (2015) PPP support is upset with APNU+AFC, they will not run back to the PPP because they are not seeing a reformed party. The same old hard-faced unattractive individuals are in the forefront of the party calling for a boycott. The disgruntled PPP supporters are unlikely to return to support those individuals. The party has to reform and bring in new blood. The old timers have to make way for the young and outsiders who can bring credibility to the party. And the party must change over to the language of a national unity government with true representatives of all races.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
