The headline statement of President Barack Obama was of general application. It assumed more resonance when the Democrats lost the majority in Congress. The PPP learned the lesson that politics is the art of compromise before President Obama was born. Compromise was the basis of its early leadership. It was attempted during the crisis years […]
Category Archives: Politics
‘THE CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROAST’
As expected, the anti money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism legislation (AML/CFT) has not been passed in the National Assembly. The months of discourse, debate, committee meetings, efforts to compromise, public statements, even a visit by a CFATF official, have not yielded any positive results. The losers and victims of the failure to […]
RESOLVING THE BUDGET CONUNDRUM
The Chief Justice’s decision in the budget case will not necessarily lead to what Opposition Leader, David Granger, said might be a ‘car crash’ or ‘unintended consequences.’ If the Government and Opposition extrapolate from the Chief Justice’s conclusions, a budget can be produced. Stripping away the complexities from the Chief Justice’s analysis, a procedure can […]
A SOCIAL CONTRACT FOR GUYANA
(This article, slightly amended, was first published in 2010 in the Mirror and Guyana Chronicle. It attracted no comments. Though somewhat dated, the views might be considered still relevant). Guyana is not unique in its system of adversarial politics. In fact, Guyana shares with most democratic countries an elected legislature to which competing parties seek […]
A PETTING ZOO FOR PARLIAMENTARIANS
At Dr. Roger Luncheon’s press conference last week, the approval of funds for the establishment of a petting zoo took only second place to the continuing controversy over the USAID LEAD Programme to which the Government has taken objection. In announcing Government’s no objection to the expenditure of $32.5 million for the petting zoo, Dr. […]