-calls for greater inclusion of coalition partners in gov’t

ONE week after one of its members was reassigned at a ministerial level, the Working Peoples’ Alliance (WPA) – one of the coalition parties in government has said that it does not believe it is entitled to any particular ministry.
This was expressed by executive member of the party, Dr David Hinds, on Monday at a press conference at the party’s Queenstown headquarters. As part of the education reform process, the government announced last week that Dr Rupert Roopnaraine was reassigned from the Ministry of Education to the Department of Public Service, under the Ministry of the Presidency. However, he would remain a minister. Dr Roopnaraine is the WPA’s representative at a ministerial level, as is the case with all of the other coalition parties in government.
Asked about the reassignment of Dr Roopnaraine from the education sector, which was allocated the largest amount of money in the 2017 budget, Dr Hinds said he does not believe the party has a sense of entitlement. “We do not feel there is a particular ministry in government that we are entitled to. I think we do feel that if we are going to be assigned a ministry, it should be a ministry that makes sense” the WPA’s executive member said.
The WPA has often been described as the party comprising a high number of academics and intellectuals. Without inferring same though, Dr Hinds said that the party has over the years contributed “immensely to the shaping of policies,” and remains committed to doing same even now.
However, he noted that the party has not been able to contribute to the development as it would like, and that it remains ignorant as to what its role in government is, since the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) coalition has not met since securing executive office in 2015.

“The WPA was not consulted after the coalition won. There was no meeting between the WPA and the coalition or the President… We want to be meaningfully engaged. We want to play a meaningful role in shaping policy and shaping the vision of the government” he said.
However, one opinion shared by political commentators is that more could have been done and achieved at the Education Ministry under the stewardship of Dr Roopnaraine – an internationally recognised scholar. Having been the WPA’s representative in government, the WPA was asked about Dr Roopnaraine’s performance at the ministry and whether the party is satisfied with what has been achieved under him.
Dr Hinds explained though that the party had not been monitoring the performance of the ministry and would not be in a position to provide a definitive answer. He noted too that: “We [WPA] feel that Dr Roopnaraine had ideas about reforming the education sector and he did put some of those in the public domain. I think he begun to bring about some of those changes in the ministry. It’s a delicate and important ministry.”
Dr Hinds was also asked about his party’s contribution to the education sector, having expressed an interest in wanting to contribute to the government content and policy. However, he told reporters that the party was never involved in the day-to-day operations of the ministry nor the policy which guided it.

“As a party, we did not have a voice in the day-to-day working of the ministry nor policy. We were not part of the policy making in the ministry. We have a lot of ideas in education, but as a party we were not involved” he said.
Dr Hinds made it clear too, that the WPA remains committed to ensuring the coalition government works, despite some level of dissatisfaction. “We are firmly committed to making this government work. We have been in the trenches for the last 40 years trying to bring about some change in this country. The government has a unique opportunity to bring about change. We worked hard to put them in power and we do not want to bring them down” the executive member said.