Dr Prem Misir:UNDOUBTEDLY, there are people in this society who genuinely advance the cause of power sharing; and in their quest to reach this end, they want to replace the existing political structure with unproven aspects of consociationalism; it is like throwing out the baby with the bath water.
My input here is not to dismiss these people’s proposal, but it is just that these people ignore or may be unaware of the challenges that power sharing presents.
We need to ascertain, too, whether these challenges would be more politically-cost-effective than the challenges to the existing political system. I contend that the pushers of the power sharing proposal(s) need to address these challenges that I address in today’s Perspectives.
In previous communications, we spoke about self-interested politicians’ voicing incessantly what they want; and that they should let the people decide whether or not they want power sharing; especially as they believe that power sharing is a panacea for society’s ills. Next, we showed how power sharing enthusiasts use only one type of power, omitting the use of a full accounting of power to peddle the power-sharing phenomenon; we referred to this as conceptual favoritism.
QUOTE: Why is effective power sharing so rare? Apparently, power sharing is a strategy for taking power, and we will consummate agreements when it is convenient to so do. Nonetheless, the fact of the matter is that power sharing is not a proven method of conflict resolution and governance.
And then we noted that notwithstanding its attractiveness, power sharing continues to experience failures through discontinuities and interruptions in Ethiopia, Angola, South Africa, Tajikstan, Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina, among others. And I continue to surmise that if Israel did not have its continuous coalition governments, perhaps, today, we could have seen a 2-nation state in the Israel-Palestine mayhem! Effective power sharing is rare, but where it exits, it can block strategic policy formulation and implementation, as in the Israel/Palestine perennial conflict, among other scenarios.Read more....
Having not yet defined what is meant, implicit in this call is for a system or an arrangement that will lead to the removal of the PPP/C government. Every election the Opposition agitates for changes, in one form or the other, and it does get its way, at times. But as it finds out every time, the electorate has little or no confidence in their ability to govern the affairs of the nation. No matter the changes, it still fails to receive enough support. Now there is a talk about a new set of changes and the motives are clearly to parachute itself into office. The President of Guyana has made it clear that his government or party will not legislate itself out of office. No government or party would remove itself from office once it has received the democratic mandate of the people to govern
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