GENERAL Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Clement Rohee, hit hard at the main Opposition Leader, Brigadier (rtd.) David Granger, for comments made at a press conference last Friday, when he addressed the issue of inclusive governance.

Rohee made it clear that A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the coalition in which the People’s National Congress (PNC) has the majority representation, has no “moral right” to lecture the ruling party on inclusive governance.

Speaking at the PPP’s weekly news conference, held at Freedom House on Robb Street, Rohee said: “Granger and the PNC (are in) no position, nor do they have the moral right, to lecture the PPP and the PPP/C Administration on the issue of inclusive governance and participatory democracy, when they have consistently rejected all reasonable gestures made by the PPP for national reconciliation and a government of national unity.

“The PPP, during the PNC-engineered disturbances of the early 1960s, offered the PNC to share government on almost parity terms, but the PNC bluntly refused and teamed up with reactionary elements to bring down the PPP government.”

WRONG ATMOSPHERE
Rohee said the many occurrences of the past have tainted the political sphere and have created an unconducive atmosphere in which to address the idea of inclusive governance. “Such an atmosphere clearly does not exist at the moment, through no fault of the PPP nor the PPP/C government, but wholly by the inflexible stance taken by the combined Opposition parliamentary parties when, in the aftermath of the November 2011 elections, they consorted with each other to deny the PPP, which obtained the largest bloc of votes, both the position of Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

“And as if that was not enough, the combined Opposition, through (their) one-seat majority, allocated to themselves a disproportionate number of representatives in all of the parliamentary sector committees, in order to exercise control over these bodies.”
Rohee contends that Granger is now “parroting” ideas that the PNC rejected and spurned in the past.

“Take, for example, his call on the PPP to abandon its ‘winner takes all’ attitude to governance and embrace inclusive governance, and also the call for a government of national unity…,” Rohee said.

Rohee contends that putting the good of the country ahead of narrow partisan interests had never been an attribute of the PNC. “This explained why it (PNC) teamed up with the right-wing United Force to deny the pro-working class PPP political office in the 1964 elections, and why it was prepared to rig national elections to perpetuate its political life, instead of arriving at a political compromise with the PPP on a National Front Government based on an agreed programme.
“Forbes Burnham, then leader of the PNC, derisively dismissed the proposals for a government of national unity. Burnham even used his stolen parliamentary majority to amend the designation of Dr. Cheddi Jagan from Opposition Leader to Minority Leader, when the whole of Guyana and the entire world knew that the PPP was the majority party in Parliament, and should have occupied the seat of government, were it not for rigged elections,” Rohee contended.

DEMONSTRATED TRUST
Rohee made it clear that while he is not saying that inclusive governance is the path the party will take at the current time, the ruling party has never been opposed to the idea.

He said, “These (comments about inclusive governance) are good political sound-bytes which the APNU is now seeking to capitalise on, but which in fact are ideas and proposals advanced by the PPP decades ago but were unconditionally rejected by the PNC.

“…this call by Granger is nothing short of shameless hypocrisy,” Rohee contended. “To begin with, the PPP has always embraced the concept of inclusive governance and participatory democracy. These are not only well documented in a paper published by the party, ‘Towards Participatory Democracy and Inclusive Governance,’ in which the party made its position abundantly clear that it is not opposed in principle to the idea of shared and participatory governance, but felt that for such to happen there must be an atmosphere of trust among the competing opposition parties….”

Rohee said that, before any moves are made in the direction of participatory governance, the main Opposition party has to demonstrate that it could be trusted by giving into a number of key concessions.
He said: “(There has been) a fair amount of political acrimony and vindictiveness, not uncharacteristic of the PNC since its entry to the political stage during the mid-nineteen fifties, when its founder leader, Forbes Burnham, preferred to destroy the PPP (of) which he was one of the leaders, rather than to play by the democratic rules of the organisation….”

Rohee pointed to a few actions that can be the start to addressing the history of deep-seated distrust between the two main political parties, among which are:

* Relinquishing the post of Deputy Speaker to the ruling party, as the party “never hogged” both the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker, with the latter position always going to the main Opposition with the full support of the PPP;

* Restructuring the membership of several of the parliamentary committees to reflect a proportional representation of parties in the National Assembly;

* And recognising that the Government has a right to present a budget to the National Assembly, and that the Minister of Finance has the final say on allocations.

Rohee said: “There are a number of other steps, but I thought that these would be the first steps that the APNU and AFC must take in order to create an atmosphere that is conducive to any forward movement in terms of discussions on this matter.

“…the PNC and its political cohorts cannot be taken seriously, unless they are willing to show by their actions that they have the political will to rise above narrow partisan interests.”

Until there is an atmosphere to move the process of inclusive governance forward, Rohee said, the standpoint of the political parties would always be that stakeholders must have faith in the democratic process.

“The people will make this determination,” he said, as he expressed his optimism for eventual change, given the fact that young leaders are not “bogged down” with the historical baggage, and are better placed to initiate a “new dawn” for Guyana.

“(At the end of the day) the will of the people is paramount,” he said.

Rohee stressed that the ruling party will not be distracted by “political posturing” meant only to deceive the Guyanese public. “The PPP stands ready to engage all interested parties on the way forward for Guyana within the broad framework of a national democratic state,” he said.
Written By Vanessa Narine