OVER the last week, there has been increased commentary on the issue of shared governance in Guyana and on Monday, General-Secretary of the ruling party, Mr. Clement Rohee, noted that shared governance has never been taken off the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) agenda.

He, however, contends that the issue of trust, which is critical to advancing the concept of ‘shared governance’, has been “torpedoed by narrow, partisan political” interests.
“The question of trust remains on the table,” he said in response to questions posed by the Guyana Chronicle during a news conference held at Freedom House, Robb Street.
Of the many attempts at building trust by the Ruling Party, he said: “The first attempt at building trust with the PNC (People’s National Congress) as a government and as a Party started under the Hoyte era…In that period, a number of initiatives were taken, including constitutional reform… Recall that under the Hoyte administration, we did attempt to build trust; we also had many other initiatives, such as the depressed communities initiative. Mr. Corbin attempted to continue with this sojourn, but he ran into a number of problems. Elections were subsequently held, and that process ran around…we continue to push ahead with this concept (with Mr. Granger).”
Noting that it was unfortunate that recent efforts were not allowed to bear fruit, given that agreements reached between the two major political parties had by then begun to unravel, Rohee said:
“Trust requires both parties, not one. Trust is something that has to be mutually built. The Government has certain responsibilities; the Party also has responsibilities to build trust with all stakeholders.”
He is, however, heartened by the fact that the PPP has been able to make significant headway with several sections of Guyana’s population, such as the faith-based organisations, the religious community, several non-governmental organisations (NGO), and the private sector.
Having said that, he said: “The question therefore rises over what and where is the ‘fly in the ointment’ in respect of trust building with the Opposition. And the answer to that is clear and simple: The opposition’s agenda, as they have repeated time and again, is that they want to see the back of the PPP/C administration… It follows, therefore, that they will work towards that end; they are doing everything in their will to realise their objective.”

NATIONAL DEMOCRACY THRUST
He maintained that while the Party’s “thrust towards a national democracy” has taken into account, and will continue to take into account, the matter of shared governance, trust building towards a national democracy requires multi-stakeholder participation.
“We have never taken shared governance off the agenda as a Party; this has always been there,” he said, “in the context of our thrust towards a national democracy. A national democracy takes that particular phenomenon into consideration.
“And while it may have not been recently pushed by the PPP, you would recall that sometime we spoke about a broad front; a broad front of patriotic stakeholders who have a vested interest in moving the country forward.
“This was seen for the first time, for example, in 1992, when we introduced the concept of the PPP Civic. It would seem to me that this concept still remains alive and it is a manifestation, just one manifestation, of what a national unity government ought to look like.”
He is of the view that while political parties participate as political parties, there are individuals of “good standing” who are prepared to associate themselves with such an enterprise, in terms of a future government.
In acknowledging the position taken by Main Opposition Leader, Brigadier (rtd.) David Granger, on a ‘one-nation’ government, a concept with which the PPP is familiar, Rohee said:
“It is good to see a conversion to this concept, which was originally floated by the PPP in the 1974 to 1976 period, when we spoke about a national front government. At this time we also introduce the concept of winner does not take all where we said very clearly that with a national front government we would not want to dominate, nor would we want to be dominated.
“These philosophical postulates are quite familiar to the PPP. If another party attempts to plagiarize on those concepts, they are free to do so, but it must it must never be forgotten that the PPP were the originators of those innovative political concepts, to advance the process of democracy and inclusiveness.”

(By Vanessa Narine)