Dear Editor,
The present strategy of the PPP and the PNC seems to suggest that if they concentrate hard enough on ignoring each other, then, magically, one of them would cease to exist.
This is wishful thinking at best. Until and unless we implement an electoral reform that imposes a ten-year ban on any party found guilty of electoral rigging, as attempted by the PNC in the 2020 elections, then there is no other option but to deal with the PNC as the main Opposition party. Continuing to ignore the PNC and reducing their area of participation would only raise the pressure and tension in our society.
The natural law of: Pressure = Force (PNC)/Area (of participation) validates the fact that as the inverse area of engagement with the PNC is reduced, it will proportionally increase the pressure and disharmony in the country.
The President has made his point by ignoring the PNC for the past seven months. The PNC, thinking that it would be business as usual after attempting to rig the 2020 elections, have found themselves in a total state of discombobulation after being treated with scant regard by Caricom and also, I am sure, with much skepticism by the US ambassador in their desperate plea for recognition and engagement with the duly elected President.
The President, having made his point to the PNC, now needs to lift the quarantine on them so that the host of important issues that require national participation can proceed. Issues such as the national COVID vaccination programme, constitutional reform, electoral reform, national development strategy, GECOM reform, Public Sector reform and Petroleum Law reform are some of the reforms that strike at the heart of our growth trajectory, and must and should have national consensus.
Continuing to ignore each other is just spinning top in mud.
Yours sincerely,
Reggie Bhagwandin
