Dear Editor,
On February 3, 2015 the two leading dailies advised us that the High Court was being asked to reverse an article of the constitution as it had only been approved by a two-thirds parliamentary vote whereas, it was claimed, the matter should have been put to a public referendum. This begs the question as to whether any part of our constitution, or changes thereto, has been approved by a referendum.
Our constitution is a creation of the politicians and not of the people. The politicians will immediately point out that they represent the people. Is this the case in Guyana? Do the politicians look after the interest of the people or themselves?
It is said that under our present constitution parties who wish to have a coalition, must do so before the election. The effect of this is to hamper the growth of any third party because the two large parties are seen to represent the two large racial groups. Both large parties deny any ethnic consideration, which is how it should be, but, in fact this is not how it is seen. The politicians by agreeing to this coalition requirement, (before elections not after) encourage the ethnic divide. This because if any smaller party agrees to a coalition prior to an election, automatically it will be seen as favouring one ethnic group and thus any supporters it has will desert the small party for ethnic reasons, and support their ethnic brothers. Further, it makes no sense to have a coalition prior to elections as the election will show the strength or weakness of any party.
Another political scam has been the complete seizure of the parliament. This was done by the passing of the recall bill in 2006 which makes it possible for the party leadership to expel any member of parliament who does not vote as directed by the party. This puts the party executives in control of parliament, a move which finally kills democracy, and puts dictatorial power into the hands of a small group, the party executive. This situation has the possibility of leading to widespread corruption.
So there is to be an election in May. What are the issues and how will the vote go? A lot of money will be spent making various claims and counter claims. But who will promise complete constitutional reform, or a new constitution? That is the only issue. Even this is only a political promise, one which we have had before, haven’t we?
Yours faithfully,
LJP Willems
