Unconscionable behaviour in Parliament

By Dr. Prem Misir
IT IS unconscionable to deprive the Government Information Agency (GINA) staff of salaries for several months now. It is an extreme act to make only a dollar allocation to GINA in Budget 2013. It is unreasonable to delay the completion of several infrastructural projects, as the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) expansion, the Marriott Hotel, and the Specialist Hospital. And it is a disservice to the people of Guyana that over a one-year period, the combined opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance For Change (AFC), did not actively participate in some consensus building with the Government of Guyana (GoG) on the Amaila Hydropower Project.
The combined opposition continues to display unconscionable behaviours in matters to do with GINA and major infrastructural projects, important components of the GoG agenda, a mandate the electorate gave to the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) in the 2011 election outcome.

‘Unconscionable behaviours only attract negativism, as was the case with House Republicans’ tactics in the U.S. Congress. A more useful approach is consensus building, the pathway to bringing good tidings for ordinary Guyanese’

Even if the combined opposition’s behaviours are not intending to cause harm, their unplanned consequences remain adversarial to national development. What is even more serious in terms of deleterious consequences for Guyana is that unconscionability is becoming ubiquitous and deepening as an acceptable form of opposition politicking in Guyana. Unconscionability happens when people do not act according to the dictates of their conscience. Under such circumstances in a democracy, a court of law may not allow a person to derive benefits from such unconscionable behaviours.
It is not difficult to show in Guyana that unconscionability producing unfair outcome and unfair bargain (Thal, 1988), have damaging effects on the national psyche. Interruptions in infrastructural works at CJIA expansion, the specialist hospital, and the Marriott Hotel and the intent to terminate GINA are unfair actions producing unfair outcomes if you consider their impact on ordinary people’s livelihoods. Interruptions in infrastructural works and the possible annihilation of GINA are parliamentary decisions that accommodated near-zero bargaining from the other party or stakeholders.
But this near-zero bargaining should hardly be surprising because the combined opposition has greater bargaining strength on any matter by virtue of its parliamentary majority, and in which case, equal bargaining between the combined opposition and the PPP/Civic is an unlikely event. The combined opposition will have the advantage in bargaining in any full parliamentary session. In fact, there is near-zero bargaining in parliament as the power of numbers holds the key to demolish the GoG agenda and promote some kind of reckless fringe agenda.
And so, given that the PPP/C is the governmental body with a governmental agenda, the reality of inadequate bargaining is unfair where the combined opposition takes advantage of its parliamentary majority as a result of the PPP/C’s minority numbers. Under such circumstances, how could this issue of inadequate bargaining be resolved? Parliament itself would have good capacity to investigate inadequate bargaining outcomes by reviewing the overall legislative competition between the combined opposition and the PPP/C. The power of numbers from the non-governmental side in parliament will show up a variety of its unconscionable behaviours pertaining to major GoG proposals.
Most recently, the world saw the unconscionable behaviour of the House of Representatives’ Republicans demanding a defunding of the Affordable Care Act and threatened a shutdown of government if their demand was not met. The House Republicans did shut down the government by virtue of their majority in the House of Representatives.
Governor Daniel Malloy of Connecticut on the House Republicans’ threat had this to say:
“Early this morning, House Republicans took the United States to the brink of a federal government shutdown. In a futile exercise of rank partisanship, the House Majority voted for the 44th time to undermine the Affordable Care Act. Only this time they are using a federal government shutdown and default on the nation’s credit as leverage to achieve their ideological ends.
“Threatening the US economy to, in essence, deny affordable and secure health care coverage to millions of American citizens is unconscionable. The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. It was duly enacted after Congress passed it. It survived constitutional challenge when it was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court. It survived legitimate political challenge when Americans reelected President Obama and every Senator on the ballot who voted for the bill. But rather than recognize the clear intent of the voters, House Republicans have pursued a reckless fringe agenda that is holding our economy hostage. For the good of the country, this must stop…” (September 29, 2013).
There indeed was a 16-day shutdown of the U.S. federal government, which resulted in placing about one million workers on unpaid mandatory leave. In the end, even fellow moderate House Republicans joined with Democrats to end the shutdown, after noting vast public opinion against the shutdown and House Republicans’ unconscionable behaviors. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Republican Party was apportioned considerable blame during the shutdown and that the Party had the lowest scores in 20 years. It is not hard to figure out that the the House Republicans’ unconscionable behaviour was the reason for this loss of populous support.
In Guyana’s parliament, the combined opposition’s behaviour seems unconscionable, especially as it relates to loss of livelihoods among ordinary Guyanese as well as increasing unemployment levels, among other resulting negativities. Unconscionable behaviours only attract negativism, as was the case with House Republicans’ tactics in the U.S. Congress. A more useful approach is consensus building, the pathway to bringing good tidings for ordinary Guyanese. Nevertheless, apparently at this time, the intent of the combined opposition’s unconscionable behaviors is fully loaded to fracture the GoG’s agenda.