The Sunday Stabroek headline 'Jagdeo rejects shared governance' is unfair, Information Liaison to the President, Robert Persaud says, since the President did not reject any proposal in his presentation on inclusive governance made last Saturday, but rather presented a statement on the PPP/C's position on governance.
President Jagdeo presented his party's position paper entitled Towards Greater Inclusive Governance in Guyana at State House, and the report on that paper with the accompanying caption appeared in the February 9 edition of this newspaper.
We had reported that in his address, the President stated that no contrived system of government such as executive power sharing would succeed in an absence of good faith and trust between the parties. The report had also noted his observation that this form of government was associated with negative consequences such as the institutionalisation of ethnic rivalry and the absence of political opposition.
We had also reported on the President's exposition of the conscious efforts needed to build confidence, and his statement that further arrangements for "inclusive governance" could result from a climate of trust after consultation with PPP/C constituents and the electorate.
A press release from the Government Information Agency (GINA) on Monday reported Persaud as saying that the President's address was not a rejection of any position or proposal, but "a presentation of the PPP/C position on governance issues in Guyana."
According to GINA he went on to say that the Sunday Stabroek headline "could misrepresent both the letter and the spirit of the document."
He emphasised, said the agency, that the paper had also contained proposals on the way forward in respect of current governance issues, and had highlighted the importance of trust and good faith in achieving political co-operation.
Adverting to the final paragraph of the presentation, with its reference to further arrangements for inclusive governance becoming possible in an environment of trust and confidence, Persaud said that this could certainly not be considered a "statement of rejection."
In an invited comment, Sunday Editor Anna Benjamin said that in recent times the term 'shared governance' in the Guyana context had come to refer to shared executive governance, or power sharing. This is more particularly the case since the PNCR issued its discussion paper on shared governance, which essentially sets forth a possible shared executive government model.
In his presentation the President unambiguously ruled out 'shared executive government,' not only because there was an absence of trust and good faith between the parties, she said, but also for ethnic and political reasons. As such, therefore, President Jagdeo did reject a particular position.
Benjamin went on to say that if it is that Persaud is claiming that the term "inclusive governmence" which was used in the final paragraph of the President's position paper was intended to embrace the concept of 'shared executive government' as well, then a contradiction would arise, since such a definition would be incompatible with the statements made earlier in the President's presentation.