Speaking on Friday on the sidelines of the launch of the Canada Guyana Chamber of Commerce, President Irfaan Ali made the announcement that he had invited all former presidents to a meeting with him on December 15 to discuss national development.
He told reporters: “It will be an open-flow meeting where we bring together all the former presidents. I think that it will be an opportunity for us to continue to share ideas, generate ideas to talk about how we see Guyana’s development from our different perspectives; and then to work out a model and a framework of how we engage in the future and how we have continuous contribution”.
The President’s invitation encompasses former Presidents David Granger, Donald Ramotar, Bharrat Jagdeo and Samuel Hinds.
Any type of discussion among senior statesmen from both sides of the political divide is to be welcomed. Given the poisoned atmosphere as a result of the five-month electoral crisis and the longstanding political divisions that have blighted the country’s development since independence, a reaching out across the aisle is another opportunity for major transformation in political relations and the President should be complimented for his initiative. Hopefully former President Granger will take up the opportunity for discussions with President Ali and the other former Presidents.
Since his swearing in on August 2nd, President Ali has spoken often about inclusive governance and building bridges over the political divide. In his inauguration address of August 8th at the National Cultural Centre, the President stated: “In our Manifesto we pledged to pursue inclusionary Constitutional Governance. I intend to see that pledge is implemented. To do so will require certain constitutional reforms which … will be formulated in consultation with the people. We will conduct a national conversation in which all ideas will contend, and all voices will be heard”.
The President’s reference to “inclusionary Constitutional Governance” is in synchronicity with an established PPP/C position of deepened inclusive governance – as opposed to shared governance – within the parameters of the constitution e.g. the fullest use of the sectoral parliamentary committees that were established in the last round of constitutional reforms nearly two decades ago.
Therefore, according to the ruling party’s own prescription, while a meeting of the current and former Presidents of this country is an excellent opportunity to explore ideas for the development of the country and for collegiality and bonhomie, it is no substitute for the structured engagement and political dialogue that must flow in the wake of the major challenges that the country faces. Under the present Constitution political engagement at the highest level occurs between the President and the Leader of the Opposition and presumably their appointed plenipotentiaries.
President Ali’s hope that these discussions with the former Presidents can result in “a model and a framework of how we engage in the future and how we have continuous contribution” is therefore a non-starter. Those matters would be in the province of him and the Opposition Leader. One doesn’t even have to consider the asymmetry of four past and present, likeminded senior PPP/C leaders in decision-making “dialogue” with one former APNU+AFC/PNCR Leader – where trust is in very short supply – to accept that such a mechanism is unworkable.
Furthermore, cynics may well divine that this framework being sought by President Ali is intended to place former President Jagdeo within the orbit of presidential decision-making which has been expressly prohibited by the current constitution. Surely President Ali and for that matter Mr Jagdeo would want to avoid fuelling concerns about where decision-making in the current administration resides given the very questions that dogged and bedevilled the Ramotar administration.
Perhaps there were other dialogue configurations open to President Ali. One eminently recommendable would have been President Ali and his principal assistant, Prime Minister Phillips engaging on a regular basis with Opposition Leader Mr Harmon and the former President and Leader of APNU+AFC, Mr Granger.
Four months have now elapsed since President Ali has been in charge and a new year and a new budget beckon. He has now made a first attempt to engage in political dialogue but such talks need to be urgently and credibly located within a constitutional structure. Those talks can be profitably aided by Parliament and its various committees which are inexplicably still to be activated.
There are any number of issues that serious political dialogue can address frontally. The first would be of great embarrassment to leaders on both sides: how to rectify the giveaway of the country’s oil revenues as inscribed in the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement with Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited which former President Granger must answer for and which the current government showed no appetite to address in its cosmetic changes to the permitting for ExxonMobil’s third proposed well development, Payara.
Constitution reform must come. Former President Granger’s government deceived the populace by failing to deliver reforms post-2015. Does the PPP/C government have a plan to conclude deliberations on the key reforms that should be made within a year? There is so far no sign of this.
Both sides could also have serious discussions on spending priorities for oil revenue and about how the country’s petroleum production clashes violently with its climate change commitments and desire to be a green energy economy. What should be the country’s oil depletion policy? Should the line be drawn at the Stabroek Block given its veritable riches?
How will the many pockets of extreme poverty across the country be mapped and eradicated as soon as is practicable?
The lack of continuity of key policies and programmes across governments no matter who wins or loses continues to plague the country. There is no sense in partisan development plans. There must be one that both sides agree on along with their constituencies.
There is much room for serious dialogue between the two sides. The talks among the President and the former presidents can be a useful introduction.