After a hiatus of eight years, the National Assembly has reconstituted the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) with new names selected to serve on that body. The ERC has its genesis in the aftermath of the PNC-induced protests and riots following the 1997 general elections, which they claimed was fatally flawed. As part of the Herdmanston Accord brokered by Caricom and signed on Jan 17, 1998, the ERC was established as a constitutional body by Constitutional Amendment (#2) Act of 2000, which was assented to by the President on August 11, 2000.
The ERC held out great promise to finally address the ethnic concerns and interests that drove the political system in Guyana. Its legitimacy was intentionally made very wide, to include the widest possible participation of Guyanese civil society – defined broadly as those organisations working outside of the governmental apparatus: Christian, Hindu and Muslim religious bodies; the Labour Movement; Private Sector; Youth; Women’s Organisations; Afro- Guyanese; Indo-Guyanese; and Indigenous/Amerindian bodies. As can be seen, the members of the ERC are not only from “ethnic” organisations.
However, the ethnically directed political protests and violence arising from those protests not only continued, but escalated to new levels when five prisoners escaped from the Camp Street Jail and ensconced themselves in the village of Buxton on the East Coast of Demerara. There they announced they were “African Freedom Fighters” who would violently address their constituency’s “marginalization”.
Even though the ERC was officially constituted, and launched in 2003 with the participation of the PNC in Parliament, the organization, which executed its mandate, did not serve to defuse the gunmen’s increasingly violent actions, which by 2008 had included three mass massacres that killed three dozen persons.
In just as violent tit-for-tat responses, “phantom squads”, which included elements from narcotics gangs, embarked on vigilante missions that killed several hundred citizens, according to one “dossier” compiled by the PNC.
Ironically, the mandate of the ERC, as adumbrated in Article 212A of the Constitution, was extremely wide, and was detailed in twenty-four functions that were both proactive and reactive to the very ethnic issues that were being articulated by the armed gunmen. For instance, on the first prong, the ERC could: “Identify and analyse factors inhibiting the attainment of harmonious relations between ethnic groups, particularly barriers to the participation of any ethnic group in social, economic, commercial, financial, cultural and political endeavours; and recommend to the National Assembly or other relevant public or private sector bodies how these factors should be overcome”.
On the second prong, for instance, it could: “Investigate complaints of racial discrimination and make recommendations on the measures to be taken if such complaints are valid, and where there is justification therefor, refer matters to the Human Rights Commission or other relevant authorities for further action to be taken.”
The PNC, after 2007, objected to the composition and chairmanship of the ERC, accusing the latter of being partisan towards the PPP. This was the identical objection the PNC had made to the “Race Relations Task Force”, formed in 1993-1995 by the PPP government and headed by Bishop Randolph George, head of the Anglican Church. By 2011, just before the general elections scheduled for that year, Robert Corbin, then leader of the PNC, filed an injunction against the ERC. By the time the injunction was dismissed by 2011, when Corbin dropped the suit, most of the ERC employees had departed.
Even though the PNC-led APNU and the AFC controlled the National Assembly following the 2011 elections, and chaired the Appointments Committee, they never reconstituted the ERC in that Parliament. The same occurred after their victory at the 2015 elections, subsequent to which they launched a new “Social Cohesion” Ministry, which has incorporated much of the proactive agenda of the ERC. In fact, early in the new administration, it was explicitly stated that the Social Cohesion Ministry would deal with “ethnic relations”.
There is no question that better ethnic relations are needed now more than ever in Guyana. It is hoped that the PNC-led ERC will take its mandate seriously, and not play partisan politics.
