In what is being dubbed a Constitutional violation, the colour of the national flag hoisted at D’Urban Park, Georgetown, during pre-Independence observance on May 25, 2018, appeared to have been altered.
The national flag and D’Urban Park which bore an alteration at last week’s flag raising ceremony
Questions were raised over the addition, which is a strip of a darker shade of green to the national flag. Following concerns which raised, especially on social media, this Guyana Times sought an explanation from Social Cohesion Minister, Dr George Norton on Tuesday but this was unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) released a statement highlighting its own concerns of the latest feature. As such, it said that coalition Government must explain to Guyanese why the national flag “had to be altered with the PNC/R theme colour.” The People’s National Congress is the major arm in the larger A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) that forms the ruling party in the APNU/Alliance For Change Government.
The PPP expressed its dissatisfaction with what it referred to as “the despicable and unconstitutional alteration of Guyana’s national flag”, which was hoisted to mark the nation’s 52nd Independence anniversary. The Party said that Guyanese have witnessed the practice of national symbols being treated as the property of this Administration – the last such act evidenced in the seizure of the national flag from the Corriverton Town Council on the anniversary of the Republic.
It said too that the fact that the unauthorised alteration of the national flag connects one of Guyana’s most significant national symbols to the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), via the inclusion of the PNCR’s party colour along the end of the Golden Arrowhead, is reminiscent of the “repressive regime” of the PNC pre-1992.
The PPP added that the practice of the PNCR flag being flown above Guyana’s courts has not been forgotten by the Guyanese people. The party said this act is the latest of an increasingly authoritarian Administration and adds to the numerous constitutional violations committed since May 2015.
The PPP was adamant that The Second Schedule included in Guyana’s Constitution devotes two pages (pages 260 and 261) to the heraldic description of Guyana’s national flag. The description makes it clear that there are five distinct colours and defines their proportions.
