Power sharing at the level of the executive is a recipe for gridlock and that is why, in the view of President Bharrat Jagdeo, nothing ever came of the discussions between the parties in 1960-1985, since the PNC recognised this.
However, for power sharing to work, he believes that there must be trust between the two parties and the engagement of the two parties at the level of the legislature and outside of it could facilitate its generation.
Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday during an interview scheduled to be aired last evening on GTV Channel 11, Jagdeo said the shared governance proposal recently put forward by the PNCR "is just tampering again (with institutions) as you are going to have the same kind of gridlock that you have now in the parliament, in the executive."
"You can't afford that as that is a recipe for the government to collapse. You can't work! If there is no agreement with what we do now in Cabinet we will be unable to do anything, especially with that proposal where everything has to be by consensus."
Jagdeo said the recent amendments to the Constitution provide for power sharing at the level of the legislature. "That is an expression of shared governance." He said that with the recent amendment came responsibilities which up to now the PNCR had not lived up to.
He charged that because the PNCR did not want to exercise the authority it has been given by the recent amendments, the country has had to go for a year without the establishment of the Police, Teachers, Judicial and Public Service Commissions.
He said the issue of the appointment of the service commissions is unrelated to the issues of the dialogue as he and the late PNCR leader Desmond Hoyte had never discussed them. He said because it was unrelated to the dialogue issues, the PNCR should return to the parliament for the sole purpose of ensuring the appointment of the service commissions.
Jagdeo repeated an offer he said he had made to Hoyte that shadow ministers should be appointed and for the two parties to have more frequent contact so that they could understand each other.
"Let us work as far as possible to work together in local government. Let's build trust. Let's get a period of building trust. Let's work on the crime issue; let's see how that goes and then at sometime in the future ... let's put to the people of the country if they want us to move to another stage, that is executive power-sharing."