Dear Editor,
I read the well-presented letter by my friend and patriot Eric Phillips of ACDA. In his erudite letter, he makes a strong case for Constitutional Reform. The argument for constitutional reform has been supported by my Party, the People’s National Congress and others.
Here, I publicly disagree with the arguments, logical as it may appear. In one paragraph of his letter, Eric Phillips and others make a case for public education. I agree such education must involve intense work by all of our religious and social organisations. Such work is aimed to produce a generation of Guyanese with a sense of morality. Some years ago, we called for a moral and spiritual revival. The key to unlock the door to harmony and progress.
Briefly, my position is that we can spend vast sums of money and time to retool, revamp or whatever remains of a Constitution that reads and sounds good. But so long as those with the authority to interpret a Constitution and manage the Affairs of State are themselves not corrupt, not power drunk and not selfish – they are wasting time and money. I can fill pages with examples.
Recall how the PPP criticised what they called the Burnham Constitution of the 1980s, but once in office, sheltered behind it. In our Mother country – England, we had a King who believed in the Divine Right of Kings, ignoring Parliament and tradition. Nearer home, you had the mighty United States of America caught up in a civil war ostensibly to keep black Americans, the Descendants of Slaves equally. From the pulpit to congress. They recited “behold these rights to be self-evident” that all men are created equal, etc Yet, generations later, it took the civil rights movement to make this partially a reality.
The point is, dear Aubrey, Dear Eric and others, we see it in Guyana every day, where the rules, customs and the constitution are torn asunder. I can expand on this a bit later, but for now, as I postulated four decades ago, we need, and I emphasise we, need a moral and spiritual revival to produce a meaningful change, a regime of decency, justice and respect for each other.
My friends, a perfect constitution with corrupt, uncaring men in charge, will lead to frustration.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
Elder