There needs to be more consensus politics between government and opposition

Dear Editor, I commend Samuel J Goolsarran for his letter ‘Political dialogue between the leaders of the PPP and PNC should be promoted as high priority’ (SN, January 21) in which the gentleman lays the groundwork for consensus politics.

Consensus politics is where we co-operate on issues of national importance, building mutual trust, mutual understanding and mutual respect.

Such dialogue relies on good faith from the government and from the opposition to build trust. This strategy is based on the theory that once the politicians start working together then ordinary citizens will start working together as well and see themselves as one people.

What is also needed is a grassroots organization (an NGO) to promote national unity in Guyana as well. In having such an organization we are not leaving our hopes and dreams of national unity up to the politicians alone. We will still have our differences of opinion and our differing philosophies. But this should not deter us from cooperating on issues of national importance.

There needs to be more consensus between the government and the opposition as opposed to the blame game and the ‘who pon top’ game. Yours faithfully, Sean Ori