TOWARDS the end of last year, 2018, outgoing U.S. Ambassador Perry Holloway and Finance Minister Winston Jordan, on different occasions, spoke of constitutional reform.
Ambassador Holloway spoke as a friend of Guyana, but being a diplomat, he prefaced his remarks, or more appropriately his advice or viewpoint, with “If the people and Government of Guyana so wishes[sic].”

Accordingly, no one could accuse him of telling us what to do. He was putting forward some advice from a man of wide experience and great perspicacity; and we are of the opinion that the Guyanese people welcomed his words.

When asked by a journalist what he thought of the race relations climate in Guyana, he reminded the journalist that he was a native of South Carolina, one of the southern States of the United States, “a place which still has racism to this day.”  He pointed out that politics seems to be the main area where race relations seem to be heated up and charged.
“Quite frankly”, he said “outside of politics, I don’t notice the same racial conflict and I have seen Indos and Afros readily playing together, working together, doing things together all the time.  It seems politics is the only place it gets more charged.”

When asked how he thought the problem could be solved, he replied: “It takes both sides, you’re not going to solve it if only one side wants to solve it.  So somehow, the two sides have to figure a way how to come together and work it out.  There are some challenges, because your system, the actual constitution, is a winner-takes-all system.  So, by default, if you are the winner you take all control.  The other side, what do they have?  They have little control, they have only the ability to oppose; they’re the Opposition.

I’m not going to say here that I am an advocate for or against constitutional reform, but if you want to have greater power sharing, which might lead to greater cooperation, then there would need to be some form of reform.”  In other words, the ambassador was hinting at constitutional reform which could lead to greater cooperation and better race relations.
He went on further to say why the major political parties should work together.  He pointed out that Minister Jordan had said “2020 will be the mother of all elections,” with each party trying to get into the driver’s seat.  This implies that it is imperative that they aspire to work closer together.  In Ambassador Holloway’s words “Work more together because you never know who will be in power in 2020.  It could be one side or the other.  The last elections were won only by 5000 votes, give or take, so work more together.”

Finance Minister Jordan, in his presentation of the recent budget in Parliament, declared that his government was committed to constitutional reform and will accomplish it. The minister went on to point out that resources have been provided for a survey and awareness programme with the University of Guyana.  In Minister Jordan’s words: “The survey will seek to assess the current understanding of constitutional reform by the general populace and their expectations.”  Mr Jordan went on to speak of the Parliamentary Bi-Partisan Standing Committee on Constitutional Reform Consultative Commission Bill.  Once this bill is ready for debate and passes into law, it will reflect the evolution of Guyanese democracy.

Both Ambassador Holloway and Minister Jordan have felt with certainty that constitutional reform will help to cultivate warmer socio-ethnic-political relations, ultimately furthering the development of the country and bringing about greater prosperity.  These positions were adumbrated before the no-confidence motion in Parliament and since that motion, the need for constitutional reform has become even clearer.

Actually, the no-confidence vote brought to the fore a number of issues which constitutional reform must address.  These would include the question of whether persons with dual nationality should be permitted to sit in Parliament and whether the law disallowing such dual citizens from sitting in Parliament should be repealed.  Then there is the question of the control political parties and their leaders should have over members of their parties in Parliament.

We have also heard calls for removing the new oil out of the ambit of solely the political parties, since they are national issues transcending politics. Matters of this kind will have to be decided on by those in politics and government; but it would appear to us at this time that both issues should be addressed by all parliamentary parties and the important national NGO’, especially the private sector and the representatives of labour.

To this end, government must be commended for the architecture of the recently passed Natural Resource Fund Bill. Finance Minister Winston Jordan in presenting the bill to the House, had assured that the Public Accountability Oversight Committee catered for in the bill will not feature any representatives from the government nor any ministry nor the opposition side of the House.

“Mr. Speaker, early in this Bill there is a recognition that accountability and transparency must be the hallmark in managing these resources. And no better than a watchdog is an independent council or committee clothed with the necessary legal and other provisions to undertake such oversight. And so, Mr. Speaker, after we passed the definitions and so on, which are important, we have a part three, a public oversight of the funds which will be done by what is called a public accountability and oversight committee. And this committee has the power in articles 6 1, 2, 3 and 4 to monitor and evaluate the compliance of the government with the provisions of the act, to monitor and evaluate whether the fund has been managed in accordance with the best practices of transparency, good governance and the Santiago Principles,” Jordan said.

He further noted that it also speaks to providing independent assessment for management of the funds, both in terms of utilisation and withdrawal. The committee will also have the power to facilitate its own public consultation and management of the fund, and will depend on funding, not from the national budget, but from the natural resource fund itself.

According to Jordan, the committee will comprise 22 members including representatives from women’s organisations, the Bar Association of Guyana, the Guyana Consumers Association, the Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Imitative (GY-EITI), the Guyana Press Association (GPA), the trade unions, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Guyana, the University of Guyana, the private sector and 10 persons from the Regional Democratic Councils around the country.

It is our opinion that the observation by Ambassador Holloway that politics, and particularly electoral politics, is the factor which awakens racial divisiveness in Guyana, but that in all other respects, the society is fairly integrated, is valid.  And though the major political parties have traditionally dawn their core support from racial groups, it is our opinion that they would sincerely support a constitution which would discourage racial voting.