Parliamentary Arithmetic

After the results of the November 28 General Elections were announced, re-instated Prime Minister Samuel Hinds was heard to say that the PPP/C would have much preferred to secure that extra seat that would have given it control of the National Assembly but that it is prepared to work with the two opposition political parties who control that single seat majority to ensure that we are able to run the country without having all hell break loose every time Parliament is convened.

Much as we would like to take the Prime Minister at his word it is no secret that the new parliamentary mathematics breaks unfamiliar ground for the Republic. Old habits die hard. APNU and the AFC are now going to have to grow accustomed to not being in that familiar PNC position of feeling that the National Assembly is a waste of time and that the only good things about being there are the duty-free concessions, having your voice heard during budget debates and staging walkouts from the Parliament Chamber after the debate has been exhausted and the government simply uses its majority to vote one way or another. For its part, the PPP/C, if they can, are going to have to grow accustomed to cutting deals, making compromises and generally embracing a ‘one fuh one’ political culture. The days of sitting snugly and watching the speakers on the opposition benches huff and puff to no avail would appear to be over. From now on the PPP/C may well have to grow accustomed to dealing with legislation on a one fuh one basis. One fuh you! One fuh me!

It is here, of course, that the rubber hits the road. Apart from the fact that ‘one fuh one’ was never really Bharrat Jagdeo’s ‘ting,’ (there are those who feel that the ex-Head of State came to see himself as an Emperor rather than an elected President) all three of the parliamentary parties will now feel that that their seats in the National Assembly count for much more than just making waste-of-time interventions.  Each of them can make their own separate noises and the others will have to take them seriously.

As it is the numbers may appear to suggest that what we now have is a PPP/C vs the rest type of Parliament. Don’t bet on it though. The sense of honour and commitment to national good which we assume reposes in politics is about as real as the notion of pigs flying. The Recall Legislation may prevent the cutting of opportunistic deals by maverick MP’s (in a sense the Recall Legislation is an expression of a lack of confidence by the political parties in the integrity of their own MP’s) but it cannot prevent any one of the two opposition parliamentary parties from simply cutting an across the board ‘one fuh one’ arrangement with the PPP/C that leaves the third party out in the cold. And let’s not begin to think that such a thing is not possible. These delusions that we embrace about politicians setting ‘the good of the nation’ above all else derives from an inexplicable simple-mindedness that flies in the face of the myriad examples to the contrary.

It all depends on whether those in power are prepared to accept the lessons that have derived from the elections results and we must wait until parliament re-convenes to make that determination. In the meantime we are already witnessing the earliest bouts of muscle-flexing over who becomes the Speaker of the National Assembly while the two opposition parties are demanding a piece of the action in the shaping of the National Budget. We must wait and see just how much longer the ruling party will put up with having to tiptoe around the National Assembly being nice and cutting deals before we witness the first ever walkout from Parliament by the political party that holds the reins of office. Some people are of the view that it could actually come to that.