Despite the no show by Members of Parliament at the National Civil Society Council summit last month and the council’s relocation of the three-day meeting, Head of the society Dr Phillip Mozart Thomas said the event was a success.
The summit, which was expected to see civil society in conversation about a change in the constitution, was described by critics as an epic failure after the invited members of the National Assembly did not turn up at the meeting and the council was forced to relocate the summit from the Guyana International Conference Centre to a building in Kingston because of sudden maintenance problems.
Sponsors had also pulled their support, leaving the council unable to rent the conference centre, thus forcing a relocation.
Dr Thomas had called the sudden change of events “state sponsored violence” that was initiated to put an end to the summit.
Nevertheless, he said the conference was a success and the council was optimistic that parliamentarians would put themselves in a “political posture” to meet the organization to discuss the constitutional change.
He stated that the council had discussed with civil society groups, during the summit, about setting up a national conversation with the groups and the politicians.
He said they were also able to better organize themselves on how to move forward in 2015.
The council is also looking to set up a framework on how civil society groups and the council should conduct themselves in the “civil society space,” Dr Thomas said, adding that the regulations will govern all civil society groups.
The Office of the President (OP) in a statement had urged the public not to attend the summit and had also accused Thomas of being a “shady character” with questionable international connections.
OP went further to say that it was unaware of the existence of the body.
Nevertheless, a fair number of people attended the opening ceremony though most of them refused to comment to the media.
“We thought it was it was unfortunate that the civil society was discouraged from gathering by the Office of the President,” Thomas said while stating that OP did not expect them to “be so organized” and successful.
“We are hoping in the future they would speak differently,” he added.
Thomas had previously stated that certain representatives from a government office had sent fear in the minds of the sponsors of the summit and caused them to pull out.
He said some of the sponsors were very open about their interaction with these representatives and stated that they withdrew their support for fear that the government would victimize them.
Prior to this, Thomas said he was approached by the management of the Conference Centre who indicated to him that centre had developed a number of issues.
He said a man informed him that there was no running water and the air conditioning system was defective.
However, despite all this, he said they will continue to advocate for constitutional change and freedom from dictatorship. “We will succeed at it! There is resonance in the voices of the people and we will do everything in our power to ensure reform,” he had said.
