An 11-point declaration by the Ministry of Public Health garnered viral status on social media on Friday after its mainly innocuous asseverations were headlined by a Christian invocation.
The first declaration “on the basis of the Word of God” read: “We declare the Lordship of Jesus Christ over the health sector, and that in this year, 2020, we will fear God and obey his commandments.” Another read: “We declare that the Minister of Finance, and the Director of Budget, will be inspired by God Almighty and that our programmes and our plans will find favour in the sight of God and in their sight and that we will have an unprecedented release of finances locally and internationally, that will help us to provide the necessary equipment, working tools and good working conditions for the staff in the Public Health Sector, in all 10 Administrative Regions.”
The formulations were classic Christian liturgy.
There is no need to dwell too long on the point that Guyana is a secular state – as defined by the first article of the Constitution – with deeply and broadly held religious beliefs among the major faiths, their numerous branches and the many other religions and forms of worship. Secularism as enshrined in the Constitution of Guyana therefore proscribes any government office from presenting a public face that promotes or espouses one religion or makes it seem that it adheres to the beliefs of that religion to the exclusion of others.
It may be that the majority of the employees of the Ministry of Public Health are Christians. It may be that the largest portion of that segment are evangelical Christians. It may be that this group believes that it should commingle its beliefs with public health goals and publish these as official doctrine of the Public Health Ministry. Whatever the case may be, the private religious beliefs of any one employee of the ministry must not be melded with straightforward health policies and objectives. The publication of the declaration suffused by Christian benedictions is unacceptable and offends the Constitution. Its withdrawal from the Ministry’s Facebook page is not enough.
The Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence on Saturday offered an explanation but no apology. In a video statement, Mrs Lawrence said the “man of God” who had attended the ministry’s third annual Sunshine Service had made some declarations and that the persons who had attended – attendance she said was not mandatory – had asked that the declarations be shared with them.
“It should have been shared internally, not placed externally on the Ministry’s Facebook page, and placed there without explanation which lends itself to be interpreted by persons that this was a policy statement or a position of the Ministry of Public Health…The department with responsibility should have shared that request internally with those persons who requested it for this is the third year that we are holding this event,” she stated
“The objective of us having those type of interactions and programmes was to foster a tolerance and understanding of each other and I can tell you that it has been working and so it is very unfortunate that we would have this blunder whereby a statement is placed out there and not placed in context. As I said, persons did request it and the department should have sent it out to those persons who wanted it. It was unfortunate, however, to have read the various statements made by persons based on their own belief,” she added before saying that the declarations were not a statement or policy by the ministry.
It is evident that Minister Lawrence has strongly held religious views. That is perfectly normal and acceptable save and except that it must not percolate into the business of the ministry. It is the minister, always prominently present at the Sunshine Services, who must be held accountable for the publishing of this document. Over time the culture of the ministry has been welcoming of such religious infusions being flaunted and this is the milieu in which the publication occurred on Friday on the Facebook page. Were the Sunshine Services at the Ministry multi-faith occasions there would be no problem and no one would find them out of kilter with normative behaviour. That they represented only one faith is unacceptable.
Wearing another hat, and this time in political vernacular, it was Mrs Lawrence who created other schisms when at Congress Place on November 25th 2018 and in her capacity as Chairman of the PNCR she was indelicate and indiscreet enough to say that she only had PNC friends and was looking to employ one such for a position in her ministry.
“Well I got news for you: The only friends I got is PNC, so the only people I could give work to is PNC. And, right now, I looking for a doctor who can talk Spanish or Portuguese and ah want one that is PNC”, she had said.
How she had the gumption to continue with her public duties thereafter without a fulsome apology to the public has not been discerned. When public officials are not held accountable for their indiscretions they become emboldened along with those around them. It would seem that an air of disdain for constitutional secularism has infiltrated the Ministry of Public Health. This affliction must be rooted out.
