Constitutional reform is necessary

Dec 09, 2015 Editorial, Features / Columnists

Long before the election was held in May, the coalition had complained bitterly about the Constitution and vowed to reform it when elected to office. Now that it is elected, it has the opportunity to reform the Constitution.
The Constitution should reflect the will of the people to make sure that no one is above the law. Like the American Constitution, it should be a document in which impunity is granted to no one, not even the president. All should be equal before the law, irrespective of their position or status.
A Constitution cannot be written for today’s consumption only, but for all times.
The powers granted to the President under the current Constitution should be a major cause for concern to the general public. It should inform the public that there is an urgent need for a comprehensive review of the Constitution. It is necessary, especially in the context that the country will be celebrating its 50th Independence Anniversary next year.
This is an important milestone for the people, who have endured a wide range of constitutional abuses over the years. Accordingly, it is appropriate for the people to reflect on their experience of the Independence Constitution enacted in 1966, and the changes made in 1980, and subsequently. When in opposition, both the PPP and the PNC had argued for constitutional reform, but continued to use the same constitution upon gaining power.
The public is aware that the constitution is flawed, because of the absolute power it bestows on the executive. It should be no surprise as to why Guyana became so corrupt under the previous governments. It was both corruption of power and financial corruption.
Reform of the constitution is urgently needed, because it does not allow the elected officials to be directly accountable for their actions or inactions to their constituents.
There are not clear and proper mechanisms in the constitution to ensure greater levels of transparency and accountability by the executive. Therefore, constitutional reform would be incomplete without reducing the powers of the executive and strengthening the powers of Parliament to scrutinize the actions of the executive branch.
Guyana has a hybrid political system of presidential and parliamentary structure of governance in which Parliament is controlled by the ruling majority party. Constitutional reform should include the desire to make Parliament independent and to make sure that its laws are constitutionally sound so that they must not be overturned by the Courts as was the case with presidential term limits, which was ruled unconstitutional by the Guyana Court of Appeal.
The court also ruled that the budget cuts made by the majority opposition in Parliament in 2012 and 2013 were unconstitutional. The fact that the Court annulled two important clauses in the Constitution clearly demonstrates that the current document is flawed and that changes must be made to prevent future abuses of the people should power falls in the hands of a rogue president. The stakes are very high, and the people are optimistic that the current government would reform the Constitution as was promised.
Although most parliamentary systems of governance do not have time limits for heads of state, because of abuses by former presidents, Presidential term limits should be permanently and clearly entrenched in the new constitution. Reforming the constitution should be the highest priority for the new government, because of what the nation has endured under the previous government for the past fifteen years.
The government and the opposition, in the interest of all the people, despite their ethnicity or party affiliations, should make it their duty to reform the constitution to make sure the standards of ethics and probity that have been taken for granted are respected. There will always be pros and cons when reforming the constitution, but reform is imperative.

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