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Guyana does not have a Westminster Constitution
Dear Editor,
Over the last several months, the press has carried material blaming the Westminster Constitution for the ills of Guyana. One such letter which comes to my memory is Mr. Clarence Ellis’s “The Westminster model is holding us back”.
This regular incantation against Westminster is meaningless, and is merely the beating of ghosts as Guyana does not have a Westminster Constitution any more than the USA has one.
Before Independence, Guyana and the other Caribbean territories did have Westminster Constitutions; after Independence, the Westminster Constitution of Guyana was subverted and radically changed. It is thus a misnomer to call the Guyana Constitution “Westminster.”
The Guyana Constitution is not “Westminster” because:
(i) Westminster does not have Executive Presidents and Vice-Presidents, with sometimes as many as five Vice-Presidents,
(ii) Westminster does not have Proportional Representation electoral system, with the entire country being one constituency.
(iii) Westminster does not have a Chief Justice and a Chancellor at the same time, and the queer things which have happened in Guyana with this anti-Westminster system.
(iv) Westminster does not give the party political leader the power of choosing members of Parliament after elections, nor does it give the party leader the power of expelling an elected member from Parliament. This kind of gaucherie is unknown in Westminster.
(v) Westminster does not have the elaborate, contradictory, wasteful and mostly unworkable Local Government system the Constitution of Guyana has.
The failure of the Guyana Constitution is not due to its being “Westminster,” since it is not. The failures of the Guyana Constitution have been the result of LFSB’s subversion of the original Westminster.
The best way of making a Guyana Constitution which is democratic, people-oriented, eliminating corruption and development-oriented is to devolve power to the counties. In formulating a new Constitution, the Swiss Constitution with its pluralist philosophy could be an indispensable source of reference. The power and influence of the Central Government would be curtailed to great national advantage.
Mithra Bhushan
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