BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE newly-formed National Integrity Party (NIP) has declared that it is not in support of the unity government concept which is being pushed by three political parties across the Federation as being the answer to the governmental issues that the nation currently faces.
One of the political party’s members and representative for St. Christopher One – Glenroy Blanchette – expressed this view late last week while making an appearance on FreedomFM’s ‘Issues’ talk show.
Blanchette opined that while the “concept of unity is a beautiful one”, the idea of a coalition government should be pursued as opposed to that of a unity government.
“…This concept of unity government that is being banded about is contaminated with a lot of confusion and contradiction. The concept of unity is a beautiful concept and I believe that they are throwing it out there because they hope that people are going to gravitate to that word unity. But the whole concept of unity government must be clear. The people must understand what it’s really about because there is a lot of deception being peddled.
“The concept of unity government says that it is a government that is made up of all - and I repeat - all the elected Parliamentarians…all! Nobody is being left out regardless of which party you are a part of. Once you become elected during a general election everybody will form the government. That is not what those who are pushing that concept of unity government are saying to us…
“And we the National Integrity Party, we do not support a unity government because of certain fundamental reasons…because when we search the political literature we see that the concept of unity government is fraught with a lot of difficulties and problems.”
In further explaining the reason for his party’s stance against the unity government concept, Blanchette said in that style of government there is an absence of opposition in parliament, which would mean that “elected members cannot exercise a personal conscience vote.
“That is critical and it is not part and parcel of what our democracy demands. So they cannot exercise a personal conscience vote unless special permission has been granted by the party leaders and in the spirit of the unity government. So if there is a bill before the House and whether the elected members do not agree with the bill they cannot object, and that is a danger to democracy”.
The former People’s Action Movement (PAM) candidate explicated that this is disastrous because it would mean that the checks and balances necessary to keep the government in line would have been removed and would give way to abuse of power and corruption.
“So if there is no opposition in Parliament…who is going to represent me and you? There would be no one to look for our interest and that is dangerous. Therefore, a unity government is simply stifling parliamentary debate because bills will be tabled in parliament simply to be passed.”
Conversely, he explained, a coalition government would mean that an opposition in parliament would still be intact and all facets of society would be properly represented. And as for the NIP, Blanchette proclaimed that his party is willing to form part of a coalition government.
“I believe that what these people should be pushing is the idea of a coalition. Tell the public that you are going to form a coalition to defeat the government and I believe it would get more buy-in from the public, because the concept of a unity government is very scary. If there is no opposition, the people will be dealt a severe blow…The National Integrity Party will form a coalition with any political party, whether it’s the Labour Party or any other party in opposition to form the next government…”
