Dr James: Opposition must explain itself

The Opposition is running a “grave risk” by not supporting or collaborating with government on the anti-gang legislation and will have to explain to the population the cause for their dissent, political scientist Dr Winford James has said.

“Ultimately, the fortunes of the Opposition – and the Government – are determined by the level of acceptance they get from the voter. It’s going to be what people remember and what the ruling party reminds them of,” James told Newsday during a telephone interview. Part of the risk, he added, is the fact that the anti-gang legislation was initially and substantially developed by the Opposition.

The anti-gang legislation was put to the vote early yesterday morning in the House, with all opposition United National Congress members voting “no”, while lone Congress of the People MP Prakash Ramadhar abstained. Twenty-one government MPs – all those were present at the time – voted “yes”, but the bill required a three-fifths majority vote to pass.

To the extent that legislation will be able to fix a substantial part of the gang problem, James said, the population must ask the Opposition, “more robustly and penetratingly than before”, why it did not support the bill. “The government isn’t entitled on the Opposition vote. They have to earn it. But the Opposition can withhold its vote if they see it as being advantageous.

A lot of people are having trouble seeing why they couldn’t (support),” James said.

It shows partisanship, he said, and the country shouldn’t be playing politics with crime, so to the extent that the Opposition is saying it isn’t supporting the government, it needs to tell the population why.

“There’s a polarisation of the legislative (process). In order to govern and come up with good solutions, the Opposition and Government have to meet in the middle. It’s a shame our politics hasn’t (reached that point) where we can collaborate for the good of the country,” James said.