Legislature, Judiciary must modernise to keep pace with development – President Ali

…says laws must support Guyana’s development trajectory

As Guyana continues on its development trajectory, it is important that the laws of Guyana and the judicial system keep pace with this development. This point was reinforced by President Dr Irfaan Ali, in his speech on the occasion of Guyana’s 52nd Republic Anniversary.
In his speech on Tuesday evening, the President listed all the ways in which Guyana will develop, including in its energy sector, in housing, in the social services, education and health. But according to the President, the legislative and judicial arms of Government must modernise and organise to meet the new demands of this developed future.
“To support all of this, our governance system must be efficient, reliable, trustworthy, accountable, simple, responsive and flexible to the global environment in which we operate,” President Ali said in his address.
“These elements must be built on a modern constitution that must be developed from the people – a process that is ongoing. Our laws must be reflective of the direction and development trajectory of the country,” President Ali also said.
After being delayed last year, the constitutional reform process will finally get underway soon, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, disclosed last month. He made this announcement on his weekly programme, “Issues In The News”, during which he revealed that he has already requested for a meeting to be held with the Parliamentary Standing Committee For Constitutional Reform.

“We are going to start the constitutional reform process. It was stymied last year because of COVID and a number of other matters. But I have already requested the National Assembly Committees Division to fix a date for a meeting to be scheduled of the Constitutional Standing Committee on Constitutional Reform and from there, the process will begin to achieve momentum and we will have constitutional reform,” the Attorney General had stated.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee for Constitutional Reform was established under Article 119A of the Constitution, which states that “as soon as may be the beginning of each National Assembly there shall be appointed a Standing Committee for Constitutional Reform for the purpose of continually reviewing the effectiveness of the working of the Constitution and making periodic reports there on to the National Assembly, with proposal for reform as necessary”.
It is noted that the Committee has the power to co-opt experts or enlist the aid of other persons of appropriate expertise, whether or not such experts or other persons are members of the National Assembly, to assist in its work.
The Committee is expected to have no less than six or more than 10 members nominated by the Committee of Selection.
As it is, Nandlall is the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Constitutional Reform and the other members consist of four Government Members of Parliament (MPs) – Education Minister Priya Manickchand; Culture, Youth and Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr, Public Service Minister Sonia Parag and Attorney-at-Law Sanjeev Datadin – as well as four members from the A partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Opposition – Khemraj Ramjattan, Raphael Trotman, Dr Nicolette Henry, and Amanza Walton-Desir.
With consultations slated to commence this year, Nandlall expressed hope that there would be widespread participation by stakeholders from all quarters.
“…All these organisations that are making all these grand and big pronouncements, I hope that they will participate in the process so that we can have a healthy consultative exercise in relation to constitutional reform and the exercise can produce some solid recommendations that we can move forward with,” the Legal Affairs Minister had asserted. (G3)