Our political system does not respect accountability

Jul 09, 2016 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has been disturbed over the generally unfocused approach to implementing constitutional reform in recent decades. For this reason, the announcement by President Granger to the effect that he wants a more thorough process than that proposed by the Committee on Constitutional Reform is encouraging.
Over the years, civic activism on political and constitutional issues has suffered from the fact that our formal political system of parliamentary representation is almost completely devoid of accountability to citizens.
As a result, civic activism has had recourse to a series of informal, non-parliamentary coalitions, pressure groups and ad hoc forms of participation, accompanied by frequent reference to Article 13 of the Constitution. De-linked from formal channels to Parliament, such activity has over the years proven largely ineffective and frustrating.
Being accountable to party leaders rather than to the electorate has robbed our representational politics of the vitality political participation provides. A range of reforms are necessary, therefore, to make our national Constitution a genuine blueprint for democratically acceptable politics.
Issues such as reformed Presidential powers and a Bill of Rights are two obvious features. However, the strongest argument is the need to convince party leaderships to replace their monopoly control of political decision-making. This will require a process led by broad-based, credible civic leadership, hence the need for constitutional reform.
Against this background, the Committee established by the Government for constitutional reform falls short of being fit for purpose: monopolized by lawyers, an agenda lacking ambition and bereft of broad-based legitimacy.
Generating accountable political and electoral systems supportive of participatory politics is one object of a constitutional reform process. A second must be to encourage debate around the political values and principles we wish to establish as the guiding framework for the society. This implies a constitutional reform process which concerns itself with the kind of society we want to build.
Will we drift along in the unquestioned belief that wealth and well-being are the same thing? How much should the government involve itself in social protection or the life of individual citizens?
Debating questions such as these is rendered even more imperative if the impending oil bonanza is to help resolve rather than deepen the ethnic, economic and social fault-lines of the society, a matter over which our political parties remain in political denial.
Moreover, unless the reform process starts soon in a more purposeful and inclusive manner, its results will not be incorporated into the next electoral process and the hopes of yet another generation of Guyanese will be dashed.
Executive Committee
Guyana Human Rights Association

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