WPA SAYS OPPOSITION’S ANTI-PROROGATION STRUGGLE NEEDS TO BE MORE VIGOROUS November 29, 2014 The WPA strongly favours a more vigorous campaign by the Opposition. against the prolongation of the proroguing of Parliament. Since the prorogue proclamation on November 10, the reaction of the Opposition, besides expressions of outrage at the absurdity of a minority Executive President dismissing the Parliament (in which the Opposition has a majority), the rape of democracy and the instituting of dictatorship, has focused on: writing letters of complaint to regional bodies and international agencies, meeting with locally based diplomats and civil society organisations, TV appearances of one sort or another, issuing statements to the local and regional media, APNU’s mass rally on November 14 and its weekly Tuesday protests outside the Office of the President. In this regard, the AFC, the Opposition’s junior partner that initiated the No-Confidence Motion which precipitated the prorogation move by the Government to thwart the vote for early elections, has been so far conspicuously absent from the firing line, except for a guest appearance’ at the APNU rally of November 14. Momentum is being lost and reaction to the Government’s derailing of the No-Confidence Motion appears to be` protest in slow motion. What is not emerging is a definitive Game Plan, a meaningful Action Plan for implementing decisions relating thereto, and a clear conceptualization of the End Game that signals victory for the people and defeat for the usurpers of power. With respect to whether there is a Game Plan or not, a flyer was distributed at the rally of November 14 which urged the public to join “the Civil Disobedience Campaign to Have Parliament Restored”. However, none of the speakers addressed this issue in a direct and robust manner. The speeches failed to communicate a common message of resistance and a call to battle stations. What is evident is that there is urgent need for the opposition to communicate TO THE GUYANESE PUBLIC an Action Plan or Road Map for making the Government so uncomfortable that it would be forced to relent and reconvene Parliament any time soon. There had been talk of taking the struggle to every city, town and village, but so far agitation has been confined to inner Georgetown. The ongoing and incomplete engagements with the labour unions, the private sector and civil society need to be speeded up and have not so far yielded practical commitments to widen the movement of resistance. Most importantly, if after a few weeks’ activity of picketing, consultations and press releases have elapsed, and the Government remains obdurate and entrenched, then the next and more intensive phase of the Action Plan should include marches and mass mobilization so as to prevent the supremacy of Parliament being trampled under the deadening boots of Executive paramountcy. Any meaningful Road Map would need to include taking to the streets at the appropriate stage of the struggle. Those who say marches, as against supposedly less threatening public meetings and picket action, will make APNU and AFC less able to win over significant numbers of traditional Government supporters must also realize that inaction may cause the Opposition to lose some of its hard core, but extremely frustrated voters, through abstention. The End Game is presumably, to force Government to quickly end prorogation, reconvene Parliament, submit itself to a No-Confidence Motion, and go to elections. There is still an opinion in APNU circles that priority should be given to local government elections over general and regional elections. Well, boat gone a-falls and the clamour among sizeable sections of the public is for general elections. But the political work does not stop here. There is no point in retaining the discredited and divisive “winner take all” system after the next elections. In this regard, there is need to struggle for a stabilizing five year term of National Unity Government, based on the votes of the people, in which the Party with the largest number of votes wins the Presidency, the Party with the second largest number of votes is awarded the Prime Ministerial position, and the third largest Party the Speakership, along with an all-party Cabinet, and with all the outstanding Commissions and checks and balances becoming activated. During this transitional period, the Constitution should undergo additional and more radical revision, including further reduction of Presidential powers, completion of the electoral system reforms of 1999, and allowing parties to form a coalition Government after elections. Dr. David Hinds, a political activist and commentator, is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Caribbean and African Diaspora Studies at Arizona State University. More of his writings and commentaries can be found on his Youtube Channel Hinds Sight and on his website guyanacaribbeanpolitics
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 22:10:52 +0000
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