Granger wants PPP to have positions on Boards, Agencies
By: Kiana Wilburg Not only is President David Granger interested in having representatives of the Opposition on various boards and agencies, but he is also prepared to have frank discussions with the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) on shared governance and agreeing to a mutual understanding on what that means for both parties. Granger disclosed his interest on this matter during government’s televised programme, “The Public Interest.” The Head of State said that shared governance is likely to take the form of having PPP members head certain Boards. He said that he has already proposed a Bipartisan Committee to deal with this matter and it is moving ahead in that regard. Granger added, “It is now up to the PPP, and it depends on what the other side calls shared governance. We have a committee ready to engage the PPP on any issue at any time.” The topic of shared governance raised its head again, this time at the most recent post cabinet press briefing which was held at the Ministry of the Presidency. There, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon reminded that going into the May 11, elections, the coalition party spoke about having a government of national unity. He said that given that background, the topic was raised between Granger and Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo at their most recent meeting.
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon
Harmon said, “I think it was already publically announced that there were five issues which the President laid on the table in that meeting and among those was the formation of a government of national unity and we are still open to conversations and discussions on the matter. We trust that the opposition PPP will see the necessity for this form of governance.” The Minister of State went on to say that when one examines the voting pattern of the populace, it has been sending a clear message that it wants to see a government of national unity, as neither party in the 2011 or 2015 elections earned a landslide majority. He said, “The people of this country, in fact, in the way they voted in 2011 and even in the 2015 elections, they have been saying to the political parties that this is what they want, we are not going to give any one of you an absolute majority and this is what they said by the way they voted and this is a message which we took very seriously.” Harmon continued, “Therefore in our first engagement with the Opposition, this was the first item on the agenda. I have heard several statements made since then which I cannot really comment on because these were made to the effect that the PPP was not ready for this or ready for that and a whole host of other things but what I can say is that this government is ready for talks with the PPP any day.” He said that the government does not only see the sharing of just a few cabinet positions as really amounting to the inclusive governance, which is spoken about in Article 13 of the Constitution. Harmon said that it is government’s belief that the conversation on shared governance must go deeper than this. He said that government is willing to discuss the length and breadth of the topic of shared governance and what it means for both parties, be it at the cabinet level or taking it all the way down to the various levels of governance. The Minister of stated added, “So these are things we will put on the table to talk with the PPP and we expect that in a very short time they will be able to come back to us.”
