Dear Editor,
Over the last month or so, Guyanese have been treated to some terrific editorials that only go to emphasize the critical importance of a free press in a modern democracy. Topics such as education, security, global warming, shared governance and human rights have all given Guyanese much to think about as we daily are treated to newspaper accounts of murders, rapes, robberies and poverty.
I would like to use this opportunity to comment on two of the issues raised in these editorials. Human Rights and Shared Governance.
On December 10 last year, a year-long celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was launched by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour. Here at home, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) held a commemoration event at City Hall that had over 10 speakers. At that event, I spoke on behalf of the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) and highlighted the following 6 key points:
On this 60th Anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the state of human rights in Guyana is woeful at best.
2. Electoral democracy has brought a new reality. It has brought constitutional tyranny and an elected dictatorship that has a total disdain for human rights by a ruling elite that has lost any sense of decency and human dignity.
3. Racism is one of the highest forms of Human Rights abuse in Guyana. Racism led to Slavery and more recently Apartheid, for when you use racial hatred or ethnic triumphalism or perceived superiority as your governance prism, you are an unrepentant abuser of human rights.
4. This human rights blight of racism in Guyana today has turned Guyana into a “society of fear”. Fear is the ultimate weapon of the de-humaniser. Today in Guyana, ordinary citizens live in an atmosphere of fear.
Businessmen live in an atmosphere of fear. Our women live in an atmosphere of fear. Our children live in fear because of rape and other human excesses .African businessmen, intellectuals and professionals live in fear. Indians live in fear because they will be victimised if they speak out. So they have become willing co-conspirators in the dismantling of human rights in Guyana. When there is a cult of fear…there are no freedoms… there are no human rights.
5. Corruption is a significant Human Rights issue in Guyana. Guyana’s .mode of daily life is run on the bloodline of incessant corruption. Transparency International has already highlighted Guyana’s notoriety. But corruption in Guyana is more insidious than that. Corruption in Guyana has a fundamental ethnic dimension, the placing of unqualified and racially or politically biased individuals to shepherd the country’s resources. Corruption in Guyana through contracts and other instruments is a special human rights abscess in Guyana.
6. Attacks on freedom of the press, the .withholding of advertisements from Stabroek. News, the intimidation of writers and news reporters, the censored TV programmes in Linden. are all elements of a total disregard for human rights. What is not fully understood also, .is the human rights and economic dimensions of the attack on Stabroek because if you want to read about government tenders, you have to buy the Chronicle which has become the voice of human rights denial and an agent of human rights abuse.
Why has Guyana become a human rights sore in which torture, kidnapping, extrajudicial killings and ministerial misconduct and abuse are normal occurrences. The answer is simple. Fifteen years after free and fair elections, the pernicious Westminster system of “perceived democracy” still prevails.
Guyana’s constitution is a major threat to peace and stability in the country and the constitution is the highest framework of human rights in any country, hence the daily abuse of the constitution is a daily assault on human rights. Everyone knows that Guyana needs shared governance if we are to become a progressive peaceful nation. Today, we have a criminal economy , excessive abuses of human rights and racial enmity.
The Westminster model of governance has led us down these destructive paths. The effects of the Westminster model were well documented in the editorial “The necessity for power sharing in Guyana”: The so-called Westminster model of democracy has been an unmitigated disaster wherever it has been practiced in ethnically, or racially or religiously mixed societies.
The definitive history of colonialism and imperialism has, of course, not yet been written, but the evidence is already quite strong that the consequences of this system when practised in multi-ethnic, multi-racial, or multi-religious communities are dire. On the one hand, it leads to the legal domination of minority groups by the majority clan, or tribe, or religious group, in perpetuity. On the other hand, if the minority group happens to attain power by guile, or by rigging elections, it often results in a dictatorship by the minority who, aware that it cannot retain office if elections are free and fair, hold on to power through the utilization of extra-legal means. In some instances, the minority group, denied legitimate access to government, engages in armed strife.
This seems to be the case in Sri Lanka, where the minority Tamils are conducting what can only be described as a civil war against the majority Sinhalese. The stark reality, therefore, is that the Westminster type of governance in non-homogeneous societies spawns oppressive regimes, whether the majority group or the minority gains office, or leads to war.
Our politicians are a special breed of incompetents. Instead of focusing on constitutional reform, they trivialise our lives by wasting time on Recall Legislation and now on a Freedom of Information Act. These are their priorities….not ours. They are caught up in a “circle of self”.
One of the greatest threats to human rights in Guyana will continue to be the criminal economy and its aftermath, for as Dr. Clive Thomas correctly pointed out “Guyana is being transformed into a vehicle for criminal enterprise”
He pointed out that there is ” the existence of a cabal or coterie of persons comprised mainly, but not exclusively, of selective crime bosses, state officials, security personnel, elements of the criminal justice system and political bosses, advisers and other insiders. The combination is unique and derives from the particular historical antecedents as well as social, economic and political circumstances in Guyana. This group wields enormous influence over state power as well as commands considerable economic wealth. As the ruling elite, this group has placed itself well above and beyond the reaches of domestic law while at the same time leading the political charge in Guyana for law, order, public safety and human security”.
A critical Human Rights challenge in Guyana is and will continue to be poverty. It is simply amazing and an economic crime against all Guyanese that our economy is where it is.
Poverty is eroding our sense of morals and ethics. The drug economy is the work of moral and intellectual dunces. Take the easy way out. What Guyana needs is a shared governance framework in which our economy is managed by a Council of Economic Advisors of the best and brightest Guyanese of all races. As I look across the political spectrum of the 65 Parliamentarians, only 3 of them are qualified to be members of this Council of Economic Advisors. Leave the lawyers in Parliament but leave our economy to those who are qualified.
Yours faithfully,
Eric Phillips
