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The Westminster System in Guyana has been destroyed

May 20, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to Mr. Eric Phillips’ letter, “The Westminster System imprisons Guyana” (SN17/04).
The Westminster System works quite well in India, Canada, South Africa, Trinidad, Jamaica and many other countries. In Guyana we do not have the Westminster System since that System was long ago destroyed by (i) Systematized massive electoral fraud (ii) Proportional Representation (iii) Introduction of an all-powerful Executive President (iv) Reducing the office of Prime Minster to powerlessness (v) Ignoring the financial checks and balances which are a sine qua non of the Westminster System.
Philips astonishingly accepts this destroyed Westminster Constitution we have in Guyana and is merely calling for its further perversion by the addition of racist clauses into it!
Phillips’ concern for Democracy, if it is not a posture he is adopting, could be met by the following:-
(a)    Either bring back the Westminster Constitution in its purity by cleansing it of all the perversions which had damaged it over the years. When this is done, Guyana’s Constitution will again resemble those of the other Anglophone Caribbean countries and would be Westminster once more. Westminster would then be a liberating force.
(b)    Or even better, devolve the centralized state power to the three counties. Each county would be financially independent and capable and manage its own affairs. The Central Government would be responsible only for Defence, Foreign Affairs and the Currency. The Swiss Constitution could be a model in many respects. Such a Devolved Central power would be the best form of “shared governance”, meeting the needs of Phillips and his group and indeed the whole population of Guyana.
This is not the first time such a proposal has been suggested to Phillips and other “shared government” advocates but they all seem to have cold feet when real “shared government” faces them. Mr. Phillips and others seem to have a deep-set fear in their psyches that Black People cannot successfully run a government but the experience of the rest of the Caribbean negates that fear.
In this regard of Black self-reliance and Black self-sufficiency, I would recommend Phillips and his circleIn this regard of Black self-reliance and Black self-sufficiency, I would recommend Philipps and his circle
to read Professor Accabre Nkofi’s Rebirth of the Blackman, which is on sale at bookstores.
R. Edmonds

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