Declaring that the discovery of 11 billion barrels of oil is a revolution for the country, Shadow Minister of Justice, Roysdale Forde SC says that the Constitution is in need of radical change and reordering if “Oil Rich Guyana” is going to be an equitable one.
Addressing the Buxton First of August Movement and the Society, Forde said that a careful analysis of the Constitution reveals that it is not up to the oil revolution and its consequences.
“The Constitution does not ensure or meaningfully provide for substantive equality in respect of social and economic rights. Neither does the Constitution place the State under a duty to address those rights in the context of inequalities in the society.
“The discovery of oil and consequential wealth will most likely create greater income inequalities, social instability, exclusion and marginalisation, if the constitutional and legal system is not radically altered in a manner to promote equality and equitable distribution of resources and opportunities”, he said.
The reliance on and use of the redistributive justice principle in the charter must be the basis for an equitable Guyana, he stated.
“We must break “down, crack and crumble the edifice of structural and systemic discrimination for equality to have any prospects of being realised.
“We must, in this “Oil Rich Guyana,” ensure that prosperity and wealth must be placed in the hands of all, particularly the poor of all the races in a manner that leaves no group or race behind”, he asserted.
He added that the State must be made to walk the extra mile to end racial inequalities. “That journey must commence immediately. Guyana must Rise!”, Forde declared.
