Teixiera accuses PNC of destroying Ethnic Relations Commission

Aug 01, 2016 News

PPP/C MP, Gail Teixiera

With claims of racial and political discrimination being made by former President Bharrat Jagdeo, People’s Progressive Party Civic member Gail Teixiera has accused the People’s National Congress of destroying the Ethnic Relations Commission.

Teixiera made these statements at a recent press conference held at Freedom House in the company of former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall.

The ERC was established in 2003. Its primary purpose is to hear and investigate the complaints of citizens who believe they have been mistreated based on their race.

But the ERC has been dormant since.

According to Teixiera, once the Commission had begun functioning, it became very active in exposing instances of discrimination, particularly in the matters of procurement and scholarship awards.

She said the then Leader of the Opposition Robert Corbin had moved to the court to file an injunction to stop the Commission from working. This was done in June 2011. The injunction was lifted in March 2014 upon a decision by the presiding Judge Brassington Reynolds.

According to Teixiera, by the time the injunction was thrown out, the members of the Commission had been fired. She alleged that the PNC disrupted the work of the one body outside of the league of the court where an ordinary citizen who felt that they were slighted based on the colour of their skin, could have gone to make a report.

She said that if the PNC was so serious about fighting racial discrimination then it would not have taken the actions it did to ensure the ERC became dysfunctional.

The PNC had at the time put forward several claims against the ERC and called for its reconstruction. It was alleged that the Chairman of the body Juan Edghill could not have been trusted to be impartial. Further, the proceedings of the Commission were deemed unconstitutional, since the term of the Commissioners had come to an end in 2007.

Additionally, the then opposition cited unconstitutional decisions by the Commission, lack of quorum and interference in elections. The June 2011 injunction was filed months before General and Regional Elections which were held in November of that year.

The PNC had accused Juan Edghill of interfering in elections when he held a meeting with the Guyana Elections Commission seeking to play a role in the (then) forthcoming local elections.

The PNC also took the position that the three Commissioners, Juan Edghill, John Willems and Carvil Duncan could not have constituted a quorum, since meetings needed the presence of the Chairman and not less than four members.

Added to the injunction which was filed, the combined opposition had reduced the budgetary allocation to the ERC from $99.41M to a meagre $1.

After the May 2015 General and Regional Elections, the reconstruction of the Commission was further stymied when the new parliamentary opposition was absent from the National Assembly on several occasions. At present, the Commission is still before the Parliamentary Committee to be recreated.

2 thoughts on “Teixiera accuses PNC of destroying Ethnic Relations Commission”

george wiltshire August 1, 2016 at 6:22 am

Who caused it to be dysfunctional? Did you consider the man who declared that if JESUS was here he would have supported wrong doing?
Dennis Mckenzie August 1, 2016 at 1:22 pm

What Teixiera does not seem to understand is,that in every organization there are being guided by rules or laws.The PPP party has been such a lawless one,that even the laws of Guyana it disrespected.