Deep constitutional reforms are necessary for Guyana to make progress

Apr 17, 2011 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
The PPP’s Presidential candidate, Mr. Donald Ramotar, recently expressed the view that he sees nothing fundamentally wrong with the Burnham constitution. To be fair, Mr. Ramotar did concede that he is in favour of re-examining the privilege of immunity of the President for wrongdoings committed while in power.
I believe there needs to be much deeper constitutional reforms. I am not a legal expert. However, there are a few principles of fairness and justice which the present constitution does not guarantee.
In addition, the Burnham constitution allows those who use the method of Soviet-style democratic centralism to gain leadership in a political party to exercise significant control over the economic and political aspects of the entire society. For example, not only would the anointed party leader be in a position to decide who gets the contracts, but also choose the Members of Parliament.
As we have seen in Guyana, this control saps the creative spirit and energy of the nation because all decisions and competition for power are made and settled at the top.
This top-heavy leadership is expressed clearly in President Jagdeo’s tendency to always try to save the day (so he thinks) when there are floods, strikes, minibus protests, sugar worker salary demands, etc.
However, the floods and the subsistence level of economic living the masses presently enjoy are not going away any time soon in spite of the façade.
I support the abandoning of the Executive Presidency in favour of a Prime Minister. In addition, a more fundamental reform will allow for Members of Parliament to be elected in constituencies rather than have like-minded leaders choose a person for the party list from a given region. A small number of individuals in a party must never get the chance to select the Members of Parliament. We already have a situation where the presidential candidate is selected through internal party collusions.
Making Members of Parliament elected rather than being selected by a leader will add much democratic balance. It will allow independents – in addition to those from the established political parties – in a locality to compete for a seat in Parliament.
Moreover, the elected representative will be rooted in the community and be answerable to that community. The constitutional changes can also allow for an upper and lower House of Parliament.
One of the layers of Parliament could include MPs who are directly elected by the masses (rather than selected by a leader as the present Burnham constitution allows).
The election of MPs can take place at the same time there is general election of the Prime Minister. While the Prime Minister could be elected through the same old system of proportional representation, the MPs in house would be elected by locality.
As I wrote earlier, I am not a constitutional lawyer. I am not so sure whether the present Burnham constitution allows for opposition parties to have guaranteed times on state-owned media houses and radio station. If this principle does not exist, I believe a constitutional provision should guarantee that all political parties must have equal time exposure.
After all, opposition supporters, as do PPP supporters, pay the 16% VAT and income taxes.
Thus, they help to pay the salaries of those who work at The Guyana Chronicle and NCN. Opposition taxpayers, just like PPP taxpayers, subsidize those who are paid exorbitant sums to write trash in the letter columns and blogs, some of whom use fictitious names of supposedly African Guyanese women.
Of course, these exorbitant sums could be better spent on first-rate engineers who can devote their effort to solving the flooding problems.
But we know the high premium instinctive communists place on propaganda. Propaganda is more valuable than solving the flooding, which affects the production and welfare of farmers.
Therefore, I urge young Guyanese (35 years and below) to vote for the political party which has sound policies and which makes a serious commitment to deep constitutional reform.
The only political party which I know made a serious commitment to constitutional reform is the AFC. I urge young people to read the AFC’s Action Plan for Guyana which can be found at http://www.voteafc.com/images/AFC%20Action%20Plan %20PrinterFINAL.pdf. Young people must understand that their living standard 20 years from now will be largely determined by the laws of the country.
Tarron Khemraj

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