Guyana and Jamaica: Contrasts in political mood

ANALYSIS

RICKEY SINGH

Sunday, January 15, 2012

LAST Thursday, Guyana created a new kind of history in parliamentary governance in the Caribbean when the combined Opposition took advantage of a one-seat majority in the National Assembly to elect the new Speaker, and without any attempt to reach a consensus with the governing People's Progressive Party (PPP).

The contention by Executive President Donald Ramotar, and leading spokepersons for the PPP in favour of an established convention that the majority party in Parliament be given the opportunity to nominate the Speaker, was ignored.

The result was that the main Opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) -- which is overwhelmingly dominated by the old People's National Congress -- and the minor Alliance For Change (AFC) voted on the basis of a deal between them for the AFC's leader, Raphael Trotman, being elected Speaker and APNU's parliamentarian, Deborah Backer, as Deputy Speaker.

That scenario, incidentally, stood in sharp contrast to what has been taking place in Jamaica since the landslide 42-21 parliamentary victory of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's People's National Party (PNP) over the one-term Jamaica Labour Party that had two PMs within its four-year stint -- Bruce Golding and Andrew Holness, who served a brief two months into the December 29, 2011 election.

For all the passionate debates, verbal scurrilities, and boastful, arrogant displays during the election campaign for Jamaica's 63-member House of Representatives, the general prevailing post-election mood in the leadership structures of both the victorious PNP and defeated JLP has been one of political correctness with offerings of matured statements in favour of consensus-building in the nation's interest.

Therefore, the ceremonial opening of the new Jamaican Parliament, scheduled for Tuesday, is expected to be traditional behaviour in the election of a Speaker from the PNP. In addition, the system implemented by Golding which gives the chairmanship of parliamentary committees to the Opposition will be continued.

The drug barons and the illicit trade in guns had contributed much to spawning the image -- a terrible burden borne by this Caribbean nation -- as a so-called leading "murder capital of the world". In reality, Trinidad and Tobago had overtaken Jamaica with that distasteful reputation long before the sensational capture and extradition of the infamous Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.

Jamaica as "example"

Today's climate of party political maturity in Jamaica, where political tribalism had spawned a most daunting history of killings and rampant gun-related violence therefore offers a welcome example for Guyana.

For Guyana, home of the Caricom Secretariat, is where endemic electoral fraud, sustained over 24 years of one-party rule by the PNC; deep politicisation of the army and police; throttled press freedom; race-based voting patterns, and the forging of personal and opportunistic political deals would combine to help explain contributory factors that influenced the negative political message delivered to the nation by last Thursday's election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker from the Opposition benches.

At the November Presidential, Parliamentary and Regional elections, the incumbent PPP retained the presidency (with enormous constitutional powers) for a fifth consecutive term, but lost, by one seat, control of Parliament under the electoral system of proportional representation (PR). Guyana is the only Caricom state to have a wholly PR system and an executive presidency.

In comparison to its largest bloc of popular votes (166,340) -- acquired both at the national and region levels for its 32 seats -- the APNU secured 139,678 votes for its 26 seats, while the AFC polled 35,333 votes for its seven seats.

Having separately campaigned to prevent a return by the PPP to Government for a fifth consecutive term, the APNU and AFC were to find themselves closeted in striking post-election deals to frustrate the incumbent at the level of Parliament with their combined one-seat majority.

'Winner' and 'loser'

Last Thursday's voting pattern fully dramatised the kind of "unity partnership" APNU intends to pursue with the AFC for as long as is expedient.

Both APNU and AFC had failed to submit the names of their representatives, as agreed at an initial meeting with the president, to deal with identified matters of national priorities. Subsequently, APNU and AFC were to be engaged in manoeuvres for the former getting the Speaker's job.

When that gambit in political expediency failed, and amid public hints of the AFC's likely shift in favour of the PPP's nominee, APNU, which had strenuously opposed the AFC's original candidate, Moses Nagamootoo, as being "unsuitable" (according to its leader, David Granger), hastily struck a deal for the AFC's leader, Trotman, to be Speaker in the absence of any rotation agreement.

Perhaps the big loser in all of this political horse-trading would evidently be Nagamootoo, a former PPP stalwart. He was announced early by the AFC's chairman and presidential candidate, Khemraj Ramjattan, as the party's nominee for Speaker with a public warning that there would be "no backing down... no compromise".

Even when the idea of rotating the speaksership was floated, both Ramjattan and Trotman went on record as declaring in favour of Nagamootoo having the first jump as Speaker.

In the surprising eventual deal, Trotman, who may have in spirit made a quiet "home" return to a PNC base currently held by APNU, gladly accepted the election as Speaker.

"Politics," the late President Forbes Burnham was fond of saying, "is the science of deals". Well, let's see how this APN/AFC deal on the Speaker and Deputy Speaker works in the interest of political stability and progress in Guyana.

Personally, I would be surprised if President Ramotar does not authorise a snap general election by 2014.

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COMMENTS (2)

Cosford Roberts
1/21/2012

Following previous comment, Ricky points to Christopher "Dudus" of Jamaica in a manner which avoids reference to Khan of Guyana who committed similar offences and, like Dudus, is now serving time in a US prison.The big difference here is that popularly Guyanese believe that Khan was not only highly connected in the Jagdeo Government but was a main operative in their deadly repressive politics.

Cosford Roberts
1/21/2012

What Ricky Singh failed to state in this article in comparing and contrasting Jamaica and Guyana, is that the Jagdeo lead PPP/C Government practised blatant racism and discrimination which has its roots in the caste system. We'll have to wait and see how Ramotar operates though he is likely to be tempered by a strong parliamentary opposition if they are effective. In Jamaica, there is no such thing as an Indio-Jamaican or Afro-Jamaican; they are all Jamaican... period. Tell the whole truth Ricky

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Guyana and Jamaica: Contrasts in political mood