Latest update September 4th, 2026 10:24 AM
THE COI IS AN IMPORTANT DEMOCRATIC MECHANISM
The just concluded Commission of Inquiry into the events of July 18 last may have done enough to overcome the aversion that the PPPC held towards such inquiries.
I may be wrong but during the entire twelve years of the presidency of Bharrat Jagdeo, there may have been only one major Commission of Inquiry launched. That Inquiry came after a great deal of pressure from the opposition and the Americans. There was of course a Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of the Georgetown Municipality but this was by no means a major COI.
So many things during the past decade, so many disputes could have been avoided and settled had there been the wisdom to launch Commissions of Inquiry into those developments. Imagine that despite the terror of the crime wave and the massacres of Lusignan, Bartica, Agricola and Lindo Creek, no Commission of Inquiry was launched into any of these atrocities.
The Jagdeo administration was extremely insecure about having such inquiries. Much of the speculation that still exists on a number of issues, speculation that have become engrained in many persons’ minds as fact, could have been dispensed with had the issues they related to been investigated by a Commission of Inquiry.
In this context, the decision and earnestness of President Donald Ramotar in ordering a Commission of Inquiry into the events of July 18, 2012 in Linden represented a welcome change. The outcome of that COI demonstrates that the PPP should not fear such investigations because more often than not, these COIs end up vindicating the ruling administration.
These investigations can decisively put to rest certain controversies and avoid them festering and becoming political sores. By allowing the chips to fall wherever they have to fall, the PPPC will win a great deal of support. It should therefore continue to have more commissions of inquiries.
There are a number of comments which can be made about the just concluded exercise, the first of which was the prohibitive cost which can serve as a disincentive to any such future exercise. In fact, some observers have pointed to the fact that the payments made to the Commissioners for their services would end up exceeding the “awards” that the Commissioners would have made. That unfortunately is the price that the State will have to pay and the people of Guyana will have to accept until we learn to trust more of our eminent citizens to undertake such exercises.
We are so divided as a nation that we had to bring persons at great expense from outside of Guyana to tell us what could have been told to us by a panel of eminent persons drawn exclusively from within our borders. We therefore need more COI’s so that the requisite comfort level can be achieved to allow for great confidence in local personnel undertaking such investigations.
The COI is an important democratic mechanism. It is also useful tool of conflict resolution that can help resolve political and social conflict and contribute to greater political stability. However, unless our political leaders begin to have greater confidence in the ability of locals to overcome their political and other biases in the course of such inquiries, this mechanism will continue to be underutilized.
An important hurdle may have been conquered by the just concluded COI. There will be some reservations about some of the findings but this is not unusual. There will always be differences over the findings of COIs. The findings could never have been expected to please everyone.
Commissions of Inquiry do allow for an independent and impartial probe of events and processes. This is important in a society as fractured as Guyana.
What is also important is that Guyana gains the experience of how to undertake and conduct such exercises because it was clear that during the process of determining the terms of reference and during the inquiry itself, many were at sea as to what to do and how to proceed. The experience of participating in the recent COI can but only help them be better prepared for whenever any subsequent inquiry is undertaken.
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