President Bharrat Jagdeo has said no to proposals for executive power sharing, at least for the time being. Referring to negative consequences that flow from this model of more inclusive governance, such as the hardening of ethnic cleavages by recognizing ethnic leaders as the basis for building coalition governments and the creation of a weak political opposition where there is a very strong coalition (the PPPC and PNCR command well over 90% of the vote), both of which are recognised by political scientists like Arendt Lijphart as inherent limitations, the President said in a presentation at State House on Saturday that "no continued system of governance will succeed in a situation where trust and good faith do not exist between the political parties."
The President urged that the parties must make a conscious effort to build trust and establish confidence. Without this trust, "suspicion will continue, motives will be questioned, policies will be judged on distorted criteria, resource allocation will always be followed by allegations of partisanship" and it will be hard to arrive at agreements. He noted as an example the failure to sign the crime communiqué proposed by the Social Partners. He further argued that the implementation of all the agreed constitutional reforms would build trust and enhance inclusive governance.
There can be no doubt that the creation of a Parliamentary Management Committee and the various Standing Committees that have already been agreed in principle would lead to a greater involvement of the opposition in the process of legislation. The President also proposed in his presentation that Shadow Cabinet Ministers be appointed who could present their views on issues in those portfolios and who could also be advised of developments in government policies. It is also true that the relations between the two main parties are poor and that the level of the political culture leaves a great deal to be desired. The question therefore is whether the opposition will see this as an adequate basis for moving forward.
It is here, perhaps, that the issues of trust and confidence building are most vital. It was a loss of trust in the implementation of the agreements reached in the dialogue process that led to the People's National Congress Reform (PNCR) withdrawing from Parliament. The President claimed in his speech that much of what had been agreed had been implemented. In the preliminary talks between President Jagdeo and Mr. Corbin it should be clarified exactly what remains to be done and a clear agenda to achieve this should be agreed. The deadlock must be broken, too, on the formulas for appointing the parliamentary committees so that these can be set up and start operating. If these things happen and a positive momentum is created and the dialogue process can then be resumed other things may become possible. In other words, the progress generated by these important changes can affect the way the situation is viewed by both parties.
The President ended by saying: "In an environment created by deepening trust and confidence, further arrangements for inclusive governance can result after consultation with our constituents and the electorate." Though a somewhat idealistic formulation (will the people be asked to approve a constitutional power sharing model by a referendum and can the question be defined with sufficient clarity for that purpose?) it seems to leave the door open for future developments.