Supporting the hosting of a symposium in March on Guyana’s constitutional reform process was Britain’s contribution to the debate, UK High Commissioner to Guyana, Greg Quinn says and London will now step back for the time being.
Speaking to Stabroek News on Friday, Quinn said that the University of Guyana (UG) has figures showing how many persons watched the live stream and where they were at the time. The symposium was live streamed via the university’s Facebook page.
He said that the one thing he would have done differently, was trying to get more young people into the Education Lecture Theatre at UG’s Turkeyen campus where the forum was held.
According to Quinn, young people were apparently accessing the streaming but when it came to question time, it was obvious that the younger generation was missing. He pointed out that ultimately it is the young people who are going to be the beneficiaries and who will be impacted by this reform and as such “they ought to be actively involved in the process”.
The symposium was hosted by the Carter Center and supported by the UK High Commission.
I see a lot of veterans in the room… which is not necessarily a bad thing. I think it would have been very lifting if we had a lot more students here to ask the kind of searching questions…,” Gino Persaud, one of the panelists, had told those gathered.
Persaud is an attorney and a founding member and past president of the Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc as well as a member of the Steering Committee on Constitutional Reform which was established by government in August, 2015, as the issue was one of its campaign manifesto priorities.
It was UG Communications major Nikita Blair, 22, who noted the maturity of those who spoke and questioned the role of young people in the constitution reform process.
Quinn when asked whether there was any plan to support the hosting of another symposium in the near future, said that a decision has been taken to take a back seat for the time being.
He said that the objective of the March forum was to be able to have a discussion and to get the issue “out there”. Quinn told this newspaper that presently there is no “particular plan to do anything”, pointing out that the United Nations has done some work.
“…that is our contribution to continuing the debate. I think that is what is important …and we will step back a little bit and see where the developments are”, he said, adding that constitutional reform is not a process that can be led by any outside organisation. The process, he stressed has to be led directly by not only the Guyana Government but the Guyanese society.
