The ERC is like a toothless tiger

Dec 18, 2020 Letters

Dear Editor,

If the article published in Stabroek News that the one-term former APNU+AFC Minister of Public Telecommunications Cathy Hughes is being probed by Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) over an alleged incendiary social media post “calling for an undesirable and dangerous action which can potentially impact negatively on ethnic relations” is accurate, then a thorough investigation is warranted. However, it begs the question as to what the ERC means by an “investigation.” Since its formation as part of the Herdmanston Accord brokered by Caricom on January 17, 1998 and assented by President Bharat Jagdeo on August 11, 2000, the ERC has accomplished very little, if any success. The ERC was founded in the aftermath of the People’s National Congress (PNC) induced protests and riots following the 1997 General Election, which they claimed was fatally flawed. It was officially launched in 2003 and was supposed to be independent and autonomous, but is it? Its performance since then can hardly be described as satisfactory, but more like a failure.

The ERC mandate as adumbrated in Article 212A of the Constitution is wide-ranging and it included the widest possible participation of Guyanese civil society, defined broadly to include non-governmental organizations, religious Christian, Hindu and Muslim groups, Labour Unions; Private Sector; Youth groups; Women’s Organizations; and Afro- and Indo-Guyanese; and Indigenous/Amerindian bodies. Its primary goal is to identify and analyze factors that have inhibited the attainment of harmonious relations between ethnic groups, particularly the barriers to their participation in any social, economic, commercial, financial, cultural and political endeavors and make recommendations to the National Assembly how these factors should be overcome. After a hiatus of eight years between 2010 and 2018, the ERC was reconstituted by the APNU+AFC government in 2018 with the promise to finally address the ethnic and racial divide and fears that drove the political system in Guyana, especially during elections. It never did.

Truth be told, the ERC like so many organizations established by the government are like tigers without teeth, which means they are either powerless to act or they are reactive instead of being proactive. Simply put, the ERC has been a complete failure in that it will inform the public that it has launched an investigation but would not reveal its findings to the public, or if it has completed the investigation. It must be concluded that the ERC never really fulfilled the promise of its formation and blame should be laid squarely at the feet of the two main political parties for selfish, bigoted and partisan political reasons that are well known to the public.

During the five-month combative warfare waged by APNU/AFC to remain in office through rigged elections, the ERC had numerous opportunities to intervene in the racially-charged environment created by social media and some politicians, but it never did. The ERC should have also intervened and prevented the racially charged violence that ensued in the aftermath of the brutal slaying of the Henry cousins at Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice, and the vicious murders of Haresh Singh and Prettipaul Hargobin, but it did not. The ERC is a status-quo organization to show-case the government’s stance against racism and inequality but there is not one iota of evidence to justify its existence. It is time for the government reevaluate the role and functions of the ERC to make sure that it is worth spending more than $200 million of the taxpayers hard-earned money annually on an organization that continues to malfunction, if not irrelevant in society. It is not worth it. It is our opinion as well as many in the public that the government should stop the wasteful usage of the taxpayers’ money to prop up the functionless ERC.

Yours truly,
Dr. Asquith Rose.

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