On Wednesday, April 27, 2016, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Appointments chaired by Dr George Norton, Public Health Minister, convened a high-level stakeholders meeting at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre, to kick-start a democratic process aimed at reconstituting a new Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC).
For those conversant with the political history of this country, the attendance at the meeting was rather disheartening in the least and foreboding at most from the standpoint of the pivotal role that the ERC is constitutionally mandated to perform relative to mitigating ethnic discord in Guyana.
Indeed, it is hoped that the apathetic attendance at the meeting last week is not by any means an accurate gauge of the levels of [dis]interest in the resuscitation of the entity, and by extension its work, by the constituent groupings that were invited to send representatives, otherwise, in future, citizens may very well reflect on and rue this missed opportunity of meaningfully contributing to the composition of a body that, in the current circumstance, is destined to play a strategic role in defining and influencing race-relations in the country.
All things being equal, a new ERC will come into being in probably a month’s time. This would be the country’s second ERC, replacing the first which was formed on March 8, 2002, and which, admittedly, had a chequered history.
The first ERC was chaired by Juan Edghill (who was the Christian representative), and its tenure constitutionally expired in 2006. From then, right up to 2015, an inordinate period of time during which the country saw the running-off of two elections (ie, in 2011 and 2015), no new Commission was established to replace the first ERC which, over time, became mired in a host of issues such as court matters instigated by the main parliamentary opposition challenging the organisation’s constitutionality; loss of membership through attrition – resignations, deaths, illness, and migration – resulting in the lack of a decision-making quorum; and, to some extent, a loss of public trust and confidence in the organisation’s credibility.
Subsequently, after the results of the 2011 general and regional elections transformed the PPP/C into a minority government, the framework for a new ERC was agreed to in 2013 between the government, and the parliamentary opposition parties – APNU and AFC. At that time it was consensually agreed by government and the opposition parties to add three more constituents – namely, the ethnic representatives of the country’s African, East Indian, and Amerindian peoples – to the original mix of representatives, thus increasing the total number of elected members from seven to 10.
The process to select the nominees for the new Commission concluded in 2014 and the names of those selected were made public. But, for some inexplicable reason, they were never sworn-in as Commissioners.
However, notwithstanding all that has gone before, the present APNU+AFC administration to its credit, seems very serious about going the whole yard, that is, seeing to finality the linear processes of selection, nomination, parliamentary approval, and swearing-in of a new Commission, and in this regard they should be aptly commended.
It therefore boggles the mind as to why the public isn’t fully engaged as they ought to be in the inchoate process underway to select officials to sit on this important constitutional body.
Strictly speaking, by way of comparison, the ERC is probably the most powerful of all the Rights Commissions established in this country after Independence. Based on the powers ascribed to it by the Constitution, it is more or less a quasi-judicial body that can summon, adjudicate, and penalise.
It is pellucid that the ERC when constituted, will be especially critical to pre-empting and meliorating the divisive ethnic intolerance that usually overshadows the country’s elections periods; whilst generally mediating and arbitrating, all year round, the varied ethnic problems abounding within our polity and which daily threaten the country’s very existence.
In fact, the move to put together the ERC at this time is most propitious from the standpoint that race-relations between the country’s two main ethnic groups (Africans and Indians) are at their lowest point, as is customary in the aftermath of all elections held here since the 1950s.
Undeniably, the journey ahead for the Commission is going to be predictably challenging and painstaking in service to country. At this point though, it is absolutely necessary that the groupings identified to nominate persons to sit on the ERC take into consideration the character, interests, abilities and competencies of the people they choose.
