Governing for the people

Coming off its massive win at the September 1st elections – with thirty-six seats in the National Assembly – this gave the PPP/C Government a comfortable majority to lend legislative support for its 5-year programme adumbrated in its manifesto. But very significantly, the party just demonstrated that it will be facilitated at the regional level by chairing nine of the 10 administrative regions – including, historically for the first time, Region Four, which includes Georgetown with more than one-quarter of the entire Guyanese population.
Even before the RDC elections for the Chair and Vice Chair of each Region, the PPP/C signalled its willingness to cooperate with other forces – especially the PNC/APNU, as telegraphed earlier by Vice President (VP) Bharat Jagdeo – when its local Government apparatus was deployed by the subject Minister in a massive clean-up of the city, controlled by APNU. Sadly, the new WIN party, which had performed beyond the expectations of most observers, appeared to have shot itself in the foot in its dealings with the other Opposition parties in the RDC’s elections. They assumed, for instance, that because of their number of seats in Region Eight – tied at seven with the PPP/C – they would automatically capture the Chair with the support of APNU’s one, just because the latter was also “opposition” and they did not need to be courted.
The PPP/C, however, appreciated the nuances of our local politics, where APNU might look askance at WIN since they both courted the same base and the latter poached the former’s supporters. APNU supported the PPP/C’s candidate. The same scenario played out in Region 10, where for the 18-seat RDC, WIN received nine seats to APNU’s five, PPP/C’s three, and FGM’s one. Without any discussion with the other parties – from which it needed at least one vote to secure a majority – the WIN local leader arbitrarily designated himself “Chairman-elect”. This was seen as hubristic, and the PPP/C and FGM supported the APNU candidate, leading to a tie. This should be broken by the casting vote of the Local Government Minister to deliver the Chair to APNU. Continuing with its immature political behaviour, the WIN leader in a fit of pique had his 8 councillors on the pivotal 35-member Region Four RDC abstain from the vote, leaving one of APNU’s nine or FGM’s one to vote along with the PPP/C’s 17 seats and historically give them the Chair and Vice Chair.
What this means is that in the new political dispensation going forward, it would appear that the PPP/C Government might be able to work out a modus vivendi with APNU and FGM once it unfolds policies that redound to the benefit of Guyanese writ large. This, as a matter of fact, is the proper role of an opposition in a democratic polity: not to oppose merely for the sake of opposing, but to support positive measures while offering critiques as to how they might be improved.
In the 13th Parliament, which must be convened within the next few weeks, it is hoped that WIN and its 16 MPs will move away from the virulent campaign mode in which it defined the PPP/C as an “evil elite” and work in Parliament with the Government and other parties towards the common weal. Towards this end, the Parliamentary Committees – both the Standing and “Select” ones – are crucial institutions where small numbers of MPs are out of the polarising, opposing “benches” in the National Assembly and work collegially towards a more prosperous Guyana.
With our country at long last possessing the financial wherewithal from oil revenues for at least the next thirty years to move us into the realm of first-world nations – with all that implies for our standard of living and happiness – the PPP/C appears poised under the leadership of a young and dynamic President Irfaan Ali to accomplish that dream that motivated our forebears for the last centuries. While politics is usually seen as divisive, it can also be cohesive once all parties see themselves as embarked on a common venture for all Guyanese.