In last week’s Future Notes I quoted President David Granger as saying, ‘Now my brothers and sisters, we are in government again. Eight years ago, we founded APNU and four years ago, we went into an alliance to form a coalition with the AFC. This is the first time in the history of Guyana that a six-party coalition has formed the government. We formed it because that is what the people wanted. They don’t want to see winner takes all. They don’t want to see one-party government. They got what they asked for. Look at our record… We deserve another five years to conduct, to carry on the work we have started…give us a chance’.
In response to this I stressed that ‘Winner does not take all does not mean simply handing out a few offices to some electorally ineffective parties. It means that no ethnic groups and their leaders should be in a position to take all, and there is little doubt that the PNCR is in such a position in the current coalition. President Granger and his government have not fulfilled their manifesto promise to institutionalise a broad-based government of national unity, and have thus failed on this critical front. The result is that today Guyana is as, if not more, polarized than it has ever been and faking the existence of a situation in which the PNCR is not taking all will fool no one.’