President Granger needs to respect our Constitution (Part 1)

Dear Editor,
Much have been said about our protest in the National Assembly during the address of the President on Thursday, November 2. It was our intention to make a bold statement to demonstrate our collective outrage at the callous way in which the Head of State and his Government violate the rule of law, assault important democratic institutions, and breach the Constitution in the most egregious fashion.
Article 226(1) of the Constitution states: “In the exercise of its functions under the Constitution, a Commission shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority”.
In May 2015, the then Junior Social Protection Minister Simona Broomes instructed the Secretary of the Public Service Commission, that “all interviews and meetings of the Commission are to cease forthwith until further as instructed by His Excellency, the President, David Arthur Granger’s notice”.
This was challenged in the High Court, and Justice Chang ruled that the Public Service Commission, a Commission established by the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, in the exercise of its functions shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority. The Chief Justice called it a violation of Article 226 of the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, and ruled that it was unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect.
In a public statement released to the press on October 8, 2016, trade unionist Carvil Duncan said that he was asked by President Granger in February of that year to resign as Chairman of the Public Service Commission (PSC) and from other constitutional commissions. Duncan related that he was invited to meet with the President and the Minister of State, the Honourable Joseph Harmon, and was asked to submit his resignation. Harmon, he said, offered him a suitable financial package for his exit. And during the course of the meeting, Duncan reported that the President said “no less than three times” that he does not want any blood on his carpet. Duncan having rejected the offer, the Government embarked upon a manifestly unlawful course of action. While certain criminal charges were pending in the Magistrate’s Court against Duncan, the Government decided to trigger a constitutional process to remove him from office. Without a hearing, President Granger set up a ‘kangaroo tribunal’ to remove the embattled trade unionist as Chairman of the Public Service Commission. But by virtue of being Chairman of the PSC, Carvil Duncan was ex-officio, a member of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and the Police Service Commission, institutions created by the Constitution and endowed with the fundamental role and function of guarding against executive abuses.
As Chairman of the PSC, Carvil Duncan enjoyed all these constitutional protections.
And in June 2016, the President again deliberately violated the Constitution when he instructed Minister Harmon to issue a directive to the Police Service Commission in his name, instructing the PSC to halt the Police promotions’ process.
It is obvious that this President demonstrates absolute disrespect and disregard for the letter and spirit of the Constitution, and continues to contravene its provisions with impunity. This vulgar and authoritarian attempt by the President to trample upon the independence and functional autonomy of the Police Service Commission, a constitutional agency, was again challenged in the High Court.
It is clear that when it suits the President and the Government to ignore constitutional precepts – in this case the vital insulating of service commissions – they are prepared to do so.
Two and a half years into the Government’s term of office, this tendency is rife with jeopardies to constitutional rule and the rule of law. It also adds to the unpleasant legend of the PNC’s undemocratic rule of the 70s and 80s, the flying of colours of the party over the Guyana Court of Appeal and the entrenching of paramountcy of the party as enshrined in the Sophia Declaration.

Sincerely,
Harry Gill
PPP/C Member of
Parliament