The 10th Parliament will go down in our history as the “Chopping” Parliament: nothing like the other specifically named “Long Parliament” of the 17th century. There is no sign of any political geniuses in the opposition benches, which have allowed their control of the National Assembly by a single seat to go to their heads.
Rather than performing their constitutionally defined role to scrutinise the operations of the executive, they have embarked on a foolhardy mission to unilaterally extend their powers into the executive domain.
They have, for instance, insisted on not merely providing proposals for spending via the budget, but on playing a role in crafting that budget. Even when the courts, to which the executive was forced to seek recourse after the opposition chopped funds from constitutionally created offices, pointed out that this was an exclusive power of the executive, they repeated their excisions. The result of this opposition parliamentary arrogance in arrogating all powers of the government to themselves has led to the government’s developmental programme being derailed.
That programme had been designed to push the growth trajectory into another quantum level via the launching of several mega projects that would have provided employment for thousands and also initiate infrastructural innovations to remove several structural constraints to growth. It was mind-boggling that the opposition would use the threat of rescinding a contract between the government of Guyana and the contractor of the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Project.
In addition to Guyanese and foreign manufacturers being denied the opportunity to secure reliable and inexpensive electricity – the sine qua non of modern manufacturing – Guyana’s “political risk” factor was pushed into the stratosphere. If the insurance for such political risk before the threat was US$55 million, imagine what it will be when we attempt to secure new financing in the near future.
But the country cannot be held to ransom in this fashion – a perpetual tug of war in the Parliament. However, all is not lost and the president of Guyana has just been given a clear signal as how to proceed when an executive’s development programme is being stymied by an opposition-controlled legislature. Guyana’s governance system has been called a “hybrid” one, since it combined features of the Westminster system handed down by the British and the presidential one exemplified by the U.S. We have looked generally at British precedents in examining our governance structures, but perhaps it is time we look at the U.S. – especially when the situation is analogous.
In the last U.S. general elections, while President Obama won his re-election bid, his Democratic Party failed to secure control of the Congress, just as in Guyana. And also as in Guyana, the opposition Republican-controlled House attempted to stymie the president’s programme. In one case, the Republicans’ brinkmanship brought the entire government to a standstill because of their refusal to pass legislation on spending. President Obama, however, appears to have finally accepted that there is no reasoning with such implacable opposition.
Fortunately for him, and America, the U.S. president can take some actions without legislative approval, through the issuance of “executive orders”. Earlier this week, President Obama bluntly informed the joint session of Congress: “I’m eager to work with all of you, but America does not stand still – and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Interestingly, the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly mandate “executive orders”, but they are rather inferred from other explicit duties of the executive. It is analogous to what the courts have articulated here: the executive has the power to execute its programme as articulated in its manifesto and they should go ahead to do so regardless of what the opposition-controlled legislature chops.
As President Obama said, a country cannot stand still.
