International and Guyanese Peace

Sep 23, 2011 Editorial

Last Wednesday, September 21, marked the annual International Day of Peace, honoured in the United Nations Headquarters in New York with the ringing of the iconic “peace bell” and a minute’s silence. Across the world, there were events to commemorate the day that “provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date”. The Day’s theme was “Peace and Democracy: make your voice heard”. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon emphasised, “Democracy is a core value of the United Nations…It provides channels for resolving differences.”
While there were a few overt, and it must be admitted, ritualistic observations of the day in Guyana, purely as a matter of serendipity, two days before, the Guyana Elections Commission ( GECOM) had sent a draft code of conduct to the 17 parties that have indicated an interest in contesting the upcoming elections. GECOM said it hoped the parties would sign the code to signal their willingness to implement their respective election campaign strategies in ways that contribute to the maintenance of peace and tranquillity throughout and beyond the elections.
In our estimation, the manner in which the parties approach the signing of this code of conduct will say much about the state of our democracy as far as it “provides channels for resolving differences”. Elections, after all, have been flashpoints for much of the disturbances that have wracked and tested our fragile democracy during and preceding our very short independent political history. The initial reactions to the code of conduct unfortunately, seem to be simply reflecting the immanent political cleavages.
The governing PPP/C has announced that it is quite satisfied with the exhortations of the code and declared resoundingly that it is ready and willing to sign on the dotted line. In fact, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud, while announcing his party’s campaign’s plans, urged other political parties to endorse the Code of Conduct which he claimed, the PPP/C had already signed on to. He made an explicit linkage between a commitment to the code and the campaign being “civil and free from violence”.
On the other hand, APNU, which in essentially the PNC with the WPA, GAP and some smaller entities in an electoral coalition, said it is studying the code. But it immediately expressed grave concerns on the code’s purported silence on the issues of campaign financing and equitable media access. According to a report in this newspaper, Lance Carberry, a senior APNU Policy and Manifesto Committee member, asserted the coalition will only sign on when it is satisfied that its conditions were met. Because of similar concerns, the PNCR had not signed the 2006 code of conduct.
What is ironic in this go around is the issue of campaign financing had been placed on the parliamentary agenda; andhad been read and referred to a Special Select Committee. However because the entire opposition – including the PNC and GAP that have a parliamentary presence – refused to participate in the extended session, the Committee accepted the importance and gravity of the issue but concluded that without the opposition’s participation the matter had to be referred to the next parliament that would convene after the elections.
The opposition appears to have painted themselves into a corner, which the government’s spokespersons lost no time in highlighting. There is no question that the matter of campaign financing and access to media – especially the state controlled sector – are important in giving life to the substance of democracy. But the code of conduct proposed by GECOM goes to the procedural aspect of democracy – which is the portion to which its remit is confined.
It is our hope that all parties will accept the code of conduct as Guyana’s “practical act of peace”.

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