A demonstration of brinkmanship politics - Sunday, 12 February 2012 20:55
Chronicle -
The parliamentary opposition parties have made it almost clear now that that it is not genuinely interested in consensus decisions and political cooperation with the ruling party, as what took place in Parliament last Friday irrefutably demonstrates this.
The signal that has been sent by these two parties is that there are more interested in dominance and power because it is on two consecutive occasions they have used their combined majority to derail conventional parliamentary practices.
On the first occasion, they grabbed both the Speaker/Deputy Speaker positions. Consequently, Guyana is perhaps the only parliamentary democracy in which the opposition holds both posts, despite the fact that the PPP/C singly holds the largest bloc of votes. It is a most disappointing and even shameful approach by the opposition.
The second occasion of course is the issue of the election of the Committee of Selection last Friday in Parliament, whereby logic and convention were thrown out the window.
The government correctly contended that the Committee should be structured to reflect the parliamentary strength of each party which was vehemently opposed by the opposition.
Therefore, what will emerge now is that APNU and the PPP/C will now have four members each and the AFC one member, despite the fact that the PPP/C secured over 49% of the votes at the last election and received 32 seats which is almost 10% more than what APNU gained. Yet it has the same number of members on the Committee.
This is a travesty of justice and a disgrace to the opposition parties which have been speaking so much of consensus and cooperation.
What has become increasingly clear therefore is that the two opposition parties are working as one party, as they say in common parlance are holding “one head” and as long as they differ with government’s position they will together oppose it, even if by doing so they would be subsuming reasonableness and fairness and the interest of all the peoples of this country.
This unfortunate development prompted Presidential Adviser on Governance, Gail Teixeira to dub opposition promises to work together with government as just a sham. Any fair-minded and objective person would come to a similar conclusion.
The next major hurdle to overcome in Parliament now is the passage of the national budget and this perhaps is the mother of all tests that would reveal the true intention of the opposition. From these two experiences, the situation with respect to the national budget appears to be ominous as it is more than likely that they will oppose the budget outright or make unreasonable and unacceptable demands which the government will be forced to reject.
Either way it will result in gridlock and stalemate and in that case the only alternative will be the calling of new elections which will cost another huge amount of money, which could have been better used for the development of our country.
It is ironic that only a short while after President Donald Ramotar in his address to the 10th Parliament reiterated his call for an end to gridlock politics and a movement towards consensus, compromise and cooperation that the opposition took a rigid stand on the election of the Committee of Selection.
The Guyanese people, particularly those who voted for and are supporters of the opposition should take a hard look at the situation and decide whether these parties are genuinely interested in moving this forward along the path of development and continued progress, or they are more interested in brinkmanship politics.
Their conclusion will be crucial as to how they vote in the next elections, whether it s a snap one or a scheduled one.
Chronicle -
The parliamentary opposition parties have made it almost clear now that that it is not genuinely interested in consensus decisions and political cooperation with the ruling party, as what took place in Parliament last Friday irrefutably demonstrates this.
The signal that has been sent by these two parties is that there are more interested in dominance and power because it is on two consecutive occasions they have used their combined majority to derail conventional parliamentary practices.
On the first occasion, they grabbed both the Speaker/Deputy Speaker positions. Consequently, Guyana is perhaps the only parliamentary democracy in which the opposition holds both posts, despite the fact that the PPP/C singly holds the largest bloc of votes. It is a most disappointing and even shameful approach by the opposition.
The second occasion of course is the issue of the election of the Committee of Selection last Friday in Parliament, whereby logic and convention were thrown out the window.
The government correctly contended that the Committee should be structured to reflect the parliamentary strength of each party which was vehemently opposed by the opposition.
Therefore, what will emerge now is that APNU and the PPP/C will now have four members each and the AFC one member, despite the fact that the PPP/C secured over 49% of the votes at the last election and received 32 seats which is almost 10% more than what APNU gained. Yet it has the same number of members on the Committee.
This is a travesty of justice and a disgrace to the opposition parties which have been speaking so much of consensus and cooperation.
What has become increasingly clear therefore is that the two opposition parties are working as one party, as they say in common parlance are holding “one head” and as long as they differ with government’s position they will together oppose it, even if by doing so they would be subsuming reasonableness and fairness and the interest of all the peoples of this country.
This unfortunate development prompted Presidential Adviser on Governance, Gail Teixeira to dub opposition promises to work together with government as just a sham. Any fair-minded and objective person would come to a similar conclusion.
The next major hurdle to overcome in Parliament now is the passage of the national budget and this perhaps is the mother of all tests that would reveal the true intention of the opposition. From these two experiences, the situation with respect to the national budget appears to be ominous as it is more than likely that they will oppose the budget outright or make unreasonable and unacceptable demands which the government will be forced to reject.
Either way it will result in gridlock and stalemate and in that case the only alternative will be the calling of new elections which will cost another huge amount of money, which could have been better used for the development of our country.
It is ironic that only a short while after President Donald Ramotar in his address to the 10th Parliament reiterated his call for an end to gridlock politics and a movement towards consensus, compromise and cooperation that the opposition took a rigid stand on the election of the Committee of Selection.
The Guyanese people, particularly those who voted for and are supporters of the opposition should take a hard look at the situation and decide whether these parties are genuinely interested in moving this forward along the path of development and continued progress, or they are more interested in brinkmanship politics.
Their conclusion will be crucial as to how they vote in the next elections, whether it s a snap one or a scheduled one.