Dear Editor,
As was reported recently in our local press by the PPP General Secretary “No shared governance without trust” herein, I would like to share my views on power-sharing, especially in Guyana’s context.
According to studies, the term power-sharing covers a wide range of political arrangements for sharing power with opposition groups per se. As such, it can be difficult to state a coherent description (and as per constitutional mandate) of the term power-sharing especially in Guyana’s political environment; as it can be applied broadly to cover a variety of different political divisions of power. The purpose of political power-sharing arrangements provides the platform for important security guarantees for an elected government and the opposition parties which shall be offered a place in central government.
Furthermore, such canon of power-sharing is premised on power asymmetry between participants as with the majority and minority parties, as one of the major problems in collaborative governance and proposed power-sharing as a solution to the problem. However, the challenges in the process of sharing power can vary depending on set objectives and expectations or outcomes as follows:
1) This can be compounded by a time-consuming process for building trust as being the most critical factor towards power-sharing.
2) The possibility of stalemate and inaction caused by poor implementation of power-sharing agreements.
3) The degree of unwillingness to collaborate or even withdrawal from collaboration due to actual reluctance of power-sharing.
Of course, a shared governance model built on trust should be able to crystalize and ensure that the relevant security guarantees are useful towards ending conflict by allowing the Main Opposition to be part of the governance structure. However, power-sharing is often criticized for:
1) Rewarding violence and political vandalism in the name of discrimination and inequality of groups.
2) Entrenching the divisions at the heart of conflict by translating it into new political dispensations and institutions that may overshadow majority constituencies.
3) Focusing on an elite pact, which leads to the exclusion of any social contract and the actual will and rights of the working class or groups.
In conclusion, the means for shared governance should not be at the whims and fancies of any political parties. Indeed, the trust which is needed for power-sharing must transcend partisan politics and there should be a national call by the Guyanese people for recognizing and apologizing for all rigged elections (between 1968-1985 including the 1978 fraudulent referendum & the attempt to rig 2020 general elections) in Guyana and at the same time pledge the guarantees for no recurrence in the future.
Truly yours,
Paul Ramrattan
