This is the view expressed by President Bharrat Jagdeo during a television interview with Mr. Patrick Denny of the Stabroek News.

According to the President, the PNC/R is already involved in governance issues.

The Government, in its efforts to maintain inclusivity nationally engaged in a process, which saw the reformation of the national Constitution and the provisions of the reformed Constitution cater for inclusivity at the level of the legislature.

"I have said before that we have made an historical step in this country when we put together that Constitutional Reform Commission, comprising of all the political parties and civil society. Today we have the most inclusive constitution in this region and one of the most inclusive in the Commonwealth, even probably in the western hemisphere.

"I do not need to repeat all the features of the Constitution but this new Constitution gives the Opposition a veto over the appointment of the Chancellor and the Chief Justice in the Judiciary. It provides for four management committees when there was none in the past.

"It provides for four sectoral committees to review all Government policies with the Opposition's representation...There are six Constitutional Commissions which have to be staffed in a bi-partisan way along with many other features. Now this power sharing at the level of the legislature. And that is what is shared governance," he maintained.

With the reformed Constitution came many responsibilities, which have not been exercised.

"Today we cannot put in place the four Constitutional Service Commissions (the Police Service Commission, the Teaching Service Commission, the Judicial Service Commission and the Public Service Commission). These are unrelated to anything that we are discussing. Tomorrow, we can go to Parliament and put these in place but the country has functioned without these four commissions for over a year, because we attempted to be inclusive. And now the PNC has a say in it unlike the past," he said.

Recently, Chancellor of the Judiciary, Ms. Desiree Bernard wrote to the Head of Sate about an impending collapse of the judiciary, because of the failure of the Opposition to come together to select the Judicial Service Commission's composition.

The President urged the Opposition to fulfill its responsibilities to the people of Guyana and start exercising the powers bestowed upon it by the reformed Constitution so that these commissions can be appointed.

Should the PNC/R be actively involved in these provisions made for by the revised Constitution, this would be evidence of power sharing or shared governance.

Historically, the governing People's Progressive Party/Civic and the PNC/R have never been close to an agreement on the issue of power sharing.

"And that is why at various times in our history there have been discussions with the Opposition on various issues as to whether the executives should come together. We had never reached an arrangement. It started from the 1960s right down to about 1985 - a very long period, over twenty years.

"I think the reason why the PNC did not respond during that time (during their period as Government) was because they knew that power sharing at the level of the Executive was a recipe for gridlock. And that's why nothing materialised although there were various attempts," President Jagdeo said.

According to the Head of State, he is in favour of implementing the reformed Constitution which has features to deal with discrimination, human rights abuse, corruption, and gives the PNC/R a greater say.

The Government also proposed to the PNC/R to increase its say in national issues by putting together some shadow Ministers who can develop a relationship with the Ministers so that if there is a problem, they can interface and solve it, he said.

"Why not have our Members of Parliament engage closer? They can work closer together. Let's have these two political parties have more frequent contact to understand each other. Let us work together as far as possible to work together in Local Government.

"Let's build trust, let's have a period of building trust. And let's work on the crime issue, let's see how that goes and then at some time in the future let's put it to the people of the country, the electorate.

"The PPP can have internal discussions with their supporters and the PNC can have theirs. Let's put it to the test of the people. Let them go back to the people and ask `do you want us to move to another stage?' That is Executive power sharing.

"This is why I am not going to consider all these mechanisms that were put forward (the proposal) because I think you are going to have the same type of gridlock that you have now in the Parliament. And you can't afford that because that is a recipe for the government collapsing. It can't work", he said. (GOVERNMENT INFORMATION AGENCY - GINA)