Possibilities
Editorial
Stabroek News
April 11, 2003
For a moment it looked as if we were back in the season of political foolishness again. First there was the return to the acerbic party rhetoric of yore, and then the customary tiresome game appeared to have been well and truly kicked off by the PNCR with a noisy demonstration in the compound of the Ocean View Convention Centre during the budget presentation two weeks ago. Not to be outdone, the PPP/C then seemed to have scored an own-goal by announcing a week last Tuesday that it would move unilaterally to constitute the four service commissions which have been stalled for more than a year on account of a stalemate with the opposition over the composition of the parliamentary sector committees, as well as the standing committee on constitutional reform.
While most of the damage the PNCR did by its demonstration, it did to itself and the fragile new image it had been assiduously cultivating since the beginning of the year, the PPP/C, on the other hand, appeared to do injury not only to its party image, but also to the hopes of the nation for some kind of progress on the political front.
The irony is that the long-standing impasse over the parliamentary committees dealing with foreign affairs, natural resources, economic services and social services, which had kept the PNCR out of Parliament - and by extension prevented the establishment of the four service commissions because this required opposition participation which was being withheld - had appeared to be on the brink of a solution. To its credit, the governing party had earlier made a major concession in relation to the Management Committee of Parliament, so clearing one major hurdle in the long-running dispute between the main parties, and really only a single issue relating to the sector committees remained as a stumbling block between the two sides.
The combined Opposition had argued that ministers should not chair the sector committees, and the governing party had finally agreed, but had proposed that in return, the parliamentary opposition should support a constitutional amendment which would increase the number of technocrat ministers - i.e. non-elected ministers - from the current four, to ten. Alternatively, it had suggested that the size of the committees be reduced, since it did not have sufficient senior members to serve on an eleven-member committee if it were not allowed to nominate ministers.
The first proposal does not appear to have been too serious, more especially since, as the PNCR pointed out, it would require that the issue be referred to the committee in Parliament dealing with constitutional reform. However, where the second is concerned, one might have thought that there was room for negotiation. What the electorate wants from the committees, is professional investigations and recommendations; they are not there to add their contributions to the political games which are the norm of life in this country.
However, in one of those paradoxes with which political life in Guyana is replete, it transpires that the Government's announcement of its intention to act unilaterally on the service commissions, might even have opened a little leeway for breaking the parliamentary logjam. Of necessity, it had to follow procedure, and invite the PNCR to attend a meeting of the Committee of Selection of the National Assembly with a view to constituting the Appointments Committee, which in turn inaugurates the process of identifying nominees for the service commissions.
Unexpectedly, the PNCR attended that meeting, as well as a subsequent one. Mr Corbin said later that his party did this in order to ensure that the Government could not move unilaterally on the service commissions. However, the PNCR also simultaneously tabled its nominations to the parliamentary sector committees because, as indicated earlier, it wants all these committees to be established at the same time as the Appointments Committee. Both sides will now have to confront the issue of the composition of the sector committees with some urgency.
However unexpectedly, therefore, another opportunity has opened up to bring an end to the whole sorry Parliamentary imbroglio. The nation at this stage really does not want to hear about a failure of the parties to reach accord; the people, at least, can see the possibilities for a compromise, and it is up to our politicians not to disappoint them again.
