Rohee\u2019s absurd comments must be taken for what they are \u2013 absurdities.\u00a0 The Deputy\u00a0 Speakership only went to the Opposition because the Government never nominated any candidate on its behalf.\u00a0 The configuration of the various committees reflects the proportionality of the Opposition against the Government in the National Assembly.\u00a0 This was in consonance with the Constitution and the Standing Orders.\u00a0 And it must be remembered too that though the Attorney General tried to argue algebra before the Chief Justice, luckily the Court got the arithmetic right in that case in which the A.G. contended that the Opposition\u2019s reconfiguring of the Committees was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
But the wholly ludicrous contention of Rohee is that the Opposition is not ceding anything to the minority Government.\u00a0 He should be reminded that the majority Opposition has taken nothing from the minority Government.<\/p>\n
The Government still retains its Executive power, meaning all prerogative powers. It still retains its dominance of the Parliamentary agenda. Government\u2019s business under the Standing Orders still takes precedence at every sitting excepting Private Members\u2019 day which are few and far between. Control of spending and financial allocations are still matters remaining wholly in Government excepting when the majority Opposition exercises its constitutional power to not approve those line items it sees fit. And of course Government still controls the political and legislative agenda.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the majority Opposition has never asked for anything which is outside its jurisdiction or legal realm. If anything at all the Opposition has asked for what the Constitution, our supreme law, has prescribed.\u00a0 The Public Procurement Commission is an example.\u00a0 Local Government Elections is another.\u00a0 It is the minority PPP Government which is not ceding to Guyanese that which belongs to them by an exhibition of unwarranted denial or utter deprivation.\u00a0 They are the ones who are violators of the Constitution.<\/p>\n
Rohee and his ilk in the PPP fail to appreciate that a Government minority does not necessarily mean an Opposition majority. This is too complicated for him to understand. It is simply that they are so consumed with their control-freakism, their retrograde authoritarianism, which propels them to that unjust, unreasonable conclusion.<\/p>\n
They do not want to respect the voters\u2019 voices and choices of 2011.\u00a0 Rather than conduct Government\u2019s business with an eye towards a greater happiness for all Guyanese, they conduct business purely with an eye to the next election where they hope to regain that lost majority.\u00a0 Well they are in for a surprise.\u00a0 If they don\u2019t lose the plurality, their minority status will be worse than now.\u00a0 So they better start attuning themselves to a framework of multi-party governance from now.<\/p>\n
There are benefits to be had under this dispensation, including more accountability, more inclusiveness, more reforms, more policy deals and concessions in the national interest. If only the Rohees and Ramotars in the PPP can be more visionary and statesmanlike, rather than griping and groaning as they have been.\u00a0 But then again coming from the belly of the beast, I think I can authoritatively pronounce that they were never liberal democrats.\u00a0 They are all illiberal autocrats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rohee\u2019s absurd comments must be taken for what they are \u2013 absurdities.\u00a0 The Deputy\u00a0 Speakership only went to the Opposition because the Government never nominated any candidate on its behalf.\u00a0 The configuration of the various committees reflects the proportionality of the Opposition against the Government in the National Assembly.\u00a0 This was in consonance with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-5059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pressreleases","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/image001-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4F7T1-1jB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5060,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5059\/revisions\/5060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}