Bipartisanship even more important now

With the fractured political climate that exists in Guyana, it becomes extremely important that common ground is actively pursued, concretised and expressed in the form of policies through the National Assembly. There are many critical issues facing this country that demand a bipartisan approach, but due to the narrow minded, one-upmanship behaviour and occasional brinkmanship, the effective participation of the full house is rarely achieved.

Life-taking issues such as violent crime (including domestic violence), road traffic safety, suicide, and prison safety and reform should have been receiving wide parliamentary support in terms of the devising and application of strategies, including legal reform, in order to combat these issues and save Guyanese lives. Cohesion in the National Assembly on such matters would have gone a long way towards enhancing social cohesion among the people. However, our political representatives plod along in self-destruct mode, convinced that everything coming from the other side must be denigrated and dismissed, and the messenger stopped at all costs regardless of the message.

Development issues such as education, land distribution, expanding the network of roads, drainage, water supply; and other important issues such as border security and immigration see no resounding convergence of opinions and actions in the National Assembly. Indeed, quite the opposite occurs, and this has the unwelcome result that with each change of government, the country goes through a period of lengthy realignment as the new administration must first dismantle every ongoing process implemented by its predecessor in order to put its own stamp on things.

If there were bipartisan support from a policy standpoint for the various important projects and matters addressed in the house of parliament, then there would be no need for any rebranding exercise by the party in government, since both sides of the house would have owned the policy decision. Sadly, this rarely happens, and the corollary is that the technical and other staff are dragged into the political arena, being forced to eschew previous positions in order to freshly align with their new political masters. In the process, momentum and continuity is lost, and projects suffer as systems and lives are disrupted, breeding despondency and no small degree of ill will.

All this is quite unnecessary, benefits no one in the long run, and very few in the short term. Indeed, those who see a benefit in this “stopstart approach” to government, may soon

realise that it is a poisoned chalice of Macbethian proportions. As matters unfold, Guyana has found itself in uncharted waters in a number of areas, most notably in the recent passage of a vote of “no confidence” in the current administration, forcing elections within 3 months, or in such time agreed on by two-thirds of the national assembly.

Guyana is also in uncharted waters concerning the imminent production of oil by ExxonMobil, set for 2020. And whether as a consequence of the impending oil wealth, or other economic circumstances, or a combination of both, Guyana is now seeing a rapid increase in the numbers of persons from the Caribbean, North and South America, Asia and Africa travelling to Guyana, doing business and even appearing to settle permanently. However, some of this migration to Guyana by relatively large groups of persons (taking our tiny population into consideration) is happening through our porous borders. The weakness of our agencies to accurately acquire and compile data for statistical analysis is a well-known but largely ignored fact, and this calls into question our ability to monitor and control “illegal” visitors and settlers in Guyana.

The Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Citizenship, Public Security, and even the Ministry of Finance all have roles to play in addressing this burgeoning population growth which can negatively impact the lives of Guyanese if not handled at the level of policy determination, systems implementation and execution. Guyana is notorious for its weak institutions, poor organization and high corruption, so the best time to settle matters pertaining to immigration, emigration, border security and citizenship is well before all this becomes unmanageable and we disintegrate into a type of “wild-west gold-rush” town.

If the above issues were not enough, we also have the issue of Venezuela’s continuing challenge to the integrity of our territorial boundaries, and their recent expulsion of an oil vessel from Guyana’s waters. The fact that a matter of such incredible seriousness cannot see a united parliament putting forward a sober, coherent, cohesive statement is a manifest condemnation of the entire assembly. Our politicians seem obsessed only with electioneering and wielding power and seem not to place sufficient significance on preserving the national patrimony for the benefit of this generation of Guyanese and our future progeny.

And as the saying goes, “while the grass is growing, the horse is starving,” and our obsession with turning back the hands of time at the expense of moving forward is robbing this and future generations of the type of growth and development that our small population should rightfully derive from our rich natural resources and abundant fertile land. In the meantime, the rest of the world is swarming into Guyana seeking the kind of rewards that have not redounded to the benefit of our citizens, despite the promises of our political elite.

There are only three months left for new general and regional elections. In the meantime, the country is in the hands of an administration with seriously curtailed powers following the passage of the no confidence motion. However, this timeframe still presents an “opportunity for bipartisanism,” to paraphrase Opposition Leader Jagdeo, as there are still critical issues on the table that demand resolution in the national interest.

In the next three months, a house united on matters of national importance would send a strong signal to opportunistic forces manoeuvring against the national interest, and, hopefully, unite our people as well.