The results of our November 28 elections last year showed that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) emerged with the most seats and therefore gained the presidency and the right to form the government. However, the opposition parties’ combined seats have a slim one-seat majority.This provided a wonderful opportunity for tripartite cooperation among the parliamentary parties and President Donald Ramotar moved swiftly to seize the opportunity to initiate the process as immediately after officially taking office he met with the opposition parties to set the process in train.
Most Guyanese felt a sense of optimism and welcomed this apparent shift from the traditional confrontational politics to one of greater cooperation and amicability which obviously is good for our developmental process.
Unfortunately, when the situation just began to look encouraging the two parliamentary opposition parties started showing signs of betrayal to the tripartite process as they began to have discussions which excluded the PPP/C. But a real test of the tripartite process came with the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House. What took place then raised the spectre of skepticism about the tripartite process as the opposition parties combined forces to grab both positions, shutting out the PPP/C completely and therefore creating an unprecedented situation here or perhaps in any democracy anywhere in the world, whereby both positions are held by the opposition. In fact, even under the almost three-decade period of dictatorship, this long-held convention of the Speakership going to the ruling party and the Deputy Speakership going to the opposition was upheld.
The government has already expressed its concerns about the mixed signals being sent by the opposition on the tripartite process. Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon at his most recent press conference disclosed Cabinet’s concerns: “Concerns about the delay in consummating this engagement were already raised with them and in the public; the reasons for those delays, as Cabinet previously mentioned, has become increasingly obvious, and to support its contention, Cabinet saw the two parliamentary opposition parties spending more time and significant efforts in their unilateral efforts to address those very concerns which were raised at the  tripartite level,  and unifying their positions on those matters.”
The next test of the viability of the tripartite process will be in about two weeks when Parliament convenes to elect the various committees and it would be interesting to see what approach would be adopted by the opposition parties on this matter. The burning question is whether they would go for the partisan approach as they did with the election of Speaker/Deputy Speaker. If they go for this partisan approach again it could signal the demise of the tripartite process which in the current scenario could be our best bet on the way forward and greater socio-economic development.
The approach adopted by the opposition would be a yardstick by which they would be judged by the public as to whether they are genuinely concerned about progress and development of this country or they are more committed to narrow partisan interests.
The tripartite process has the potential of laying a solid foundation for greater inclusivity and cooperation in the governance process and the ruling party has extended an olive branch to the opposition parties to begin the path down that road. But the manner in which these parties operated with respect to the election of the Speaker/Deputy Speaker was most disappointing and discouraging.
What is ironic here is the fact that the major party in the APNU coalition, prior to the elections, was a vocal advocate of shared governance and greater inclusivity and here is a wonderful opportunity to further that agenda, but it is seemingly being rejected.
This ambiguity or contradictory stance is of no help to anyone and could actually threaten the future development of this country.
So the time is fast approaching for the opposition to clearly, unequivocally and unambiguously state their position on the tripartite process and if they do not, then the Guyanese people should demand of them to do so because it is their future that is at stake.