PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, (CANA) - The Trinidad Guardian in its editorial yesterday cautioned Guyana over the establishment of six bipartisan committees comprising the opposition and ruling parties which it said could create the notion of a parallel government.
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The paper said unless it was carefully managed, Guyana's current experiment with bipartisan committees to assist in the fostering of good governance could prove counter-productive.

The paper said there were already signs of this with the main opposition parliamentary party threatening the continuation of the post-election dialogue process established between President Bharrat Jagdeo and Opposition Leader Desmond Hoyte.

Against the background of post-election political disturbances in and out of Georgetown, six committees were established by the President and the Opposition leader, with basically, representatives of the governing People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/Civic) and opposition People's National Congress/Reform.

"This was perhaps the first error. Considering the emphasis that both sides had placed on the role of civil society, these committees should have been more broad-based and comprising personnel recognised more for their technical competence and non-partisanship than their political affinities," the Trinidad Guardian said.

"Secondly, the population should have been sensitised from the very inception of this bipartisan committee system, to enable governance in an environment free from political conflicts and violence, about their mandate and limitations.

"Clearly, it was never the intention, nor can it be in a system of multi-party democratic government, based on free and fair elections, that the work and responsibilities of Cabinet Ministers should first take cognisance of the recommendations of these politically-appointed committees."

The Guardian said if, as the opposition has been seeking to make out, Cabinet Ministers must await recommendations from these committees before taking or implementing decisions, "this could create the notion of a parallel government and frustrate the expressed will of the Guyanese electorate on whose mandate the PPP/Civic is supposedly functioning."

It said frustrating the will of an electorate by a bipartisan committee system of governance, as a substitute for a broadly-based coalition or any power-sharing arrangement is a road fraught with danger.

The paper said while the dialogue between President Jagdeo and Opposition Leader Hoyte should be given every encouragement to continue, there needs to be very close monitoring of the current phenomenon of the six bipartisan committees, established with specific mandates and time frames.