Undermining stable governance

Sep 16, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

My condolences to the family and friends of Duke Pollard who just passed. I met Prof. Pollard twice. The first in early 2005 when Rupert Roopnarine invited him to a meeting to offer a perspective on the “Center Force” we were trying to cobble together for the 2006 elections. The second at a meeting of the Steering Committee on Constitutional Reform (SCCR) in 2015, where I presented some proposals. On both occasions, Mr Pollard displayed the erudite reputation he had earned. Along with Mr. Haslyn Parris, another member of the SCCR, we have now lost two of the towering local intellects who had long grappled with the conundrum of designing a legal framework, including and in addition to Constitutions, to address the challenges of our fractious polity.

I will not inquire of the fate of the SCCR’s Report save to say that to me it displayed the Opposition’s historic insouciance towards a rule-based order. After touting “constitutional change” as a major plank in their 2015 campaign to improve the legitimacy of governance – and hence its ultimate acceptance – in Guyana, the Report evidently disappeared into a Black Hole after its presentation to PM Moses Nagamootoo. It is therefore rather contemptible for the Opposition to now be clamouring for legal changes ranging from the entire system of governance (“power sharing”) to the laws on exercising the franchise.

While the modern view of constitutions is that it is a “living document” that can be altered through the procedures they contain, the PNC has once again shown that it sees them as useful only if they guarantee their installation into office. The principle being “what is mine is mine but what is yours is negotiable” – after being bludgeoned to the table. As such, what we see from the Opposition are not disagreements over policies so much as disagreements over procedures. It is more about changing the rules of the game to get into power than changing policies to benefit the country. What is dangerous about this obsession on procedures rather than policies, is that the very legitimacy of our system of governance is constantly being undermined. This is totally antithetical to the foundations of constitutional democratic governance.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold and mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

Sincerely,

Ravi Dev

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