The PNCR is calling on all Guyanese to boycott the activities of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), charging that certain constitutional requirements of that body have not been fulfilled.
The party issued this boycott call while referring to a recent ERC invitation to participate in a strategic assessment of its work, declaring that it had rejected “this latest manoeuvre of the unconstitutional ERC and its chairman to justify their existence and will not validate any of its programmes,” according to a statement from the party’s Congress Place headquarters.
“It is a mystery where the purported Chairman of that Commission has sourced the funds for such an assessment, but it is evident that this body had not seriously considered its own constitutionality,” the main opposition party declared.
According to the PNCR, “the huge resources being utilised by this body and the questionable activities undertaken, have confirmed the view that it is another political imposition without due regard to its objectives as outlined in the Guyana Constitution.”
The PNCR further contended that any agency/contractor attempting to undertake an assessment should first assess its constitutionality and whether it has a proper mandate to commission such a study.
The party said that when the government took “the unusual step without consultation to preserve the life of the ERC beyond its constitutional period their motives were obvious to all.”
The chairman, Bishop Juan Edghill, was no longer the representative of the Christian community to the ERC but the PPP/C then sought to foist another group on the appointive committee from which representatives could be nominated, the PNCR said.
“It was clearly double representation because the individual members of the group being foisted was already represented in its own right on the Commission,” the statement said.
The PNCR said it had made it clear that if further representation was to be considered then it ought to come from organisations not previously represented and not as a convenience to facilitate the current chairman to retain his post.
Instead of addressing this issue objectively, the PNCR noted, the motion presented to the National Assembly by the PPP/C, dated August 9, 2007, stated inter alia, “that this National Assembly calls on the President to take such steps so as to enable the Ethnic Relations Commission to continue to carry out its constitutional responsibilities in the interim.”
The PNCR statement of November 16, 2007, rejected this procedure as transparently unconstitutional. The party’s statement on that occasion said inter alia that, “The life of the Commission has come to an end. The Constitution requires that the categories of organisations, which elected their representatives, for appointment to that Commission, should be asked to do so again, using the specified consensual mechanism.”
However, the PNCR added, the ruling party “is clearly reluctant to follow the constitution and is seeking to use surreptitious manoeuvres to add pliant organisations, which would enable the administration to manipulate the ERC. Naturally, the PNCR has refused to go along this unconstitutional road.”
The PNCR emphasized that the ERC is a constitutional body, which is governed by Article 212B, which states clearly how the ERC is to be constituted and which Groups of Entities should be invited to elect a substantive and alternate representative for appointment to the commission.
And the only constitutional role for the President, in this process, the PNCR argued, “is to appoint the elected commissioners representing the Christian religion, the Hindu religion, the Muslim religion, the Trades Unions, the Private Sector Organisations, Youth Organisations and Women Organisations.”
In this light, the PNCR maintained that the ERC, as presently constituted, is illegal and would not be recognized by the party since the President has extended the life of the old commission in violation of the constitution to facilitate its chairman.
