…under new dispensation
PRIME Minister Samuel Hinds, who is also Leader of the National Assembly, has renewed government’s call for partnership with political parties under the new and unique dispensation in the National Assembly. Speaking at the opening ceremony of a two-day training seminar for Parliamentarians, on Sunday evening at the Impeccable Banquet Hall on Brickdam, the Prime Minister said Guyana is at a unique point in its history, where, for the first time since independence, no contending party has an outright majority of the votes cast, leading to what is now described as the “new dispensation”.
He believes that unique situations require some reversion to basics, in order to grasp their broader views and fuller understandings, and to discern possible ways forward.
“This new dispensation puts some fundamental questions before us, as a young nation, with a back-to-the-times of the Greek city-states of more than 2,000 years ago, and to the beginnings of that Mother of Parliament, the Westminster system, which is said to have roots going back to nearly 1,000 years,” Mr. Hinds stated.
The Prime Minister mentioned the ongoing contention about the autonomy of Parliament and the separation of the three arms of government — the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary.
Guyana has reached a point where it might be helpful to look back on the evolution of Parliaments, Legislative Assemblies and consultations, especially its own.
He believes that what was also pertinent to note was the evolution of the arrangements for the Elections Commission, and the call for a change from a political commission to a professional, non-political commission.
“Our challenges on government and governance are no less than those in much larger, more developed, older countries,” he lamented.
The two-day training seminar has been convened under the theme ‘Managing through Partnership’, which Prime Minister Hinds said is a recipe for the current dispensation of a minority government.
“I share that longing for partnership. I have no doubt that we all share that longing, not only now, but from the time we had our first thoughts of nationhood”, he added.

According to PM Hinds, the problem is, that with different world views held by different political parties, there are great differences in the thinking and implementation of partnerships.
Since the last national elections and the interactions that followed, he is of the view that there are huge differences between political parties’ philosophies far beyond those obscured by the overlap of race with political support.
The challenge to partnership among the political parties in Guyana should not be seen as different from the ones to partnership between the parties in the United States of America (USA) or the United Kingdom (UK), Hinds added.
“Here I put forward my party’s approach to achieving partnership, advocated nearly ten years ago: growing trust in small steps, then in larger steps,” he pointed out.
Prime Minister Hinds made it clear that unless the political parties could find some way to put the 1964-1992 period behind them, his party will find it difficult to avoid the fear that compromises proposed.