Absence of MPs bungles passage of constitution amendment bill
By Patrick Denny
Poor management by the parliamentary whips of the PPP/Civic and the PNC resulted in the National Assembly being adjourned before the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2000 could be read a third time and passed yesterday. The Bill, which will establish the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), required a two-thirds majority for its enactment. However, as the Bill went through its committee stage, it was brought to the attention of the whips that there was not the required number of members present to ensure the passage of the Bill. Speaker, Derek Jagan, after consultation first with PPP/Civic Chief Whip, Feroze Mohamed and later with his PNC counterpart, Dunstan Barrow, adjourned the sitting for five minutes. But after 15 minutes and further consultations, the sitting was reconvened and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Reepu Daman Persaud, moved that the sitting be adjourned to August 3, when the Bill would have its Third Reading and the two-thirds majority required for its passage would be assured. At the time of the adjournment, the elected members present for the PPP/Civic benches numbered 26 (36); those on the PNC benches, ten (25); the Alliance for Guyana (AFG) two (two); and The United Force (TUF) one (two). After the adjournment, two PNC members returned but even that addition would have been insufficient. Persaud who has been shepherding the constitution reform process, in introducing the bill, described it as a landmark piece of legislation which ought to afford security and strengthen the confidence of all the people of Guyana. Persaud that the establishment of an Ethnic Relations Commission was necessary if Guyana was to develop into a great nation where all its peoples participated in its economic, political and cultural development. Among the features of the Bill he alluded to was the involvement of civil society and the consensual mechanism that was required for the commission's membership to speak for all the peoples of Guyana. He noted, too, the provision for the participation of other related commissions on the ERC such as the Commissions on Gender Equality, the Rights of the Child, the Human Rights Commission and the Commission on Indigenous Peoples. He also referred to its investigative powers and as well as to its competence to recommend the establishment of a tribunal. PNC frontbencher, Clarissa Riehl, declared her party's support for the Bill but said that she had to say that the necessity for such a commission was a "sad indictment on our ability to live with each other and to share equitably in [our country's] resources." She drew attention to the less than timely introduction of the Bill and cautioned the National Assembly about the work that would have to be done to put it into effect, warning that it would eat into the two-month recess which normally begins in August. AFG parliamentarian, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine said that he had been privileged to have been associated with all stages of the Bill from its inception in the CRC to its finalisation, which was before the House. He praised the dedication of the representatives of the parliamentary parties who participated with him in the various stages of its preparation. Despite giving the Bill his fullest support, noting that it would have been passing strange if he didn't do so, Dr Roopnaraine referred to areas of concern he had. The first of these was the need to staff the commission with the people who would allow it to function effectively as well as to avoid "the excessive incestuousness" as a result of the interlocking relationship between the commissions suggested by the OSC task force. Another concern was the need to avoid the mistakes of the past when similar ventures were tried, stressing the need that if the commission was to discharge its functions effectively it would need the support of the community as a whole. Dr Roopnaraine said that the establishment of the commission would make unnecessary the code of conduct which the parties had voluntarily signed. The code never had teeth but the commission would set standards to which the parties would be bound to adhere or be penalised. Information Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, who chairs the OSC and whom Trotman said was making his farewell presentation in the House, a reference to his rumoured resignation from politics, bristled at Riehl's criticism of the untimely introduction of the Bill. He stressed that it was a people's Bill, born of their desire to have ethnic security constitutionally guaranteed and protected. He said too that the bill was part of the bundle of human rights being constitutionally entrenched and which should have been accompanied by legislation establishing commissions such as the Indigenous Peoples Commission, the Human Rights Commission and Commission on Gender Equity. He too praised the hard work of his colleagues as well as the legal experts such as Prof Keith Massiah and the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, Cecil Dhurjon, SC, who assisted the OSC in finalising the draft of the Bill before the House. Trotman, like Riehl, considered the Bill "an indictment of each and every citizen of Guyana and of course, that includes Mr Speaker, those of us gathered here today in this august chamber surrounded by symbols of nationhood and looked upon by presidents past. "I say the legislation is an indictment against every citizen past and present who by thought and action, word and deed, act or omission, has allowed the ugly scourge of racism together with its offspring, hate, prejudice, victimisation and inequity to rear their ugly heads." Equally guilty, he said, were "those who by their silence sit in ivory towers seemingly unaffected and unconcerned. "We live in a society where those who have moral and civic responsibility to speak up remain quiet, who turn a Nelson's eye away from the pain and suffering of hundreds of thousands each day who profit by selling the fruits of division." He said that this "must stop. We must be frank and perhaps brutally so, in recognising that we have a problem. "This legislation when enacted must be the death knell of all forms of prejudice wherever it exists, wherever it is given birth, and wherever it is nurtured. Every person, home, school, church and organisation must know that the time to give account for our deeds is now and that to pay lip service to ethnic and racial harmony is unacceptable. He said that those who felt that our problems are one of friction between classes structures are to be pitied; those who consider our situation temporary are to be feared and those who fuel our difficulties should be despised. He said that legislation before the House must provide hope and confidence in the people of this country and help to persuade the thousands who leave the country everyday that Guyana was where they ought to be. And in pointing to various aspect of the Bill he recommended the immediate establishment of the commission; that fit and proper persons constitute its membership and that the commission should present to the assembly a time-bound plan of how and when it would be ready to commence its work. Trotman recommended too that careful and special consideration should be given to the introduction into the school curricula subjects which stress moral values, tolerance, respect and understanding. "Let cultural and religious teachings be part of a child's education process so that at the time of leaving school a Christian may know and understand the precepts of Islam and a Hindu may appreciate the significance of kneeling before a statue of Jesus Christ at the Brickdam Cathedral. This is my plea to ensure that another generation is not lost." The United Force Manzoor Nadir in a brief intervention expressed support for the Bill because it was something the Guyanese people always wanted. He, too, praised the framers of the Bill and the hard work of the representatives of the parties on the OSC. Hamilton, amid constant heckling and murmuring from the government benches, stressed the need for the issue of racial discrimination to be faced frontally if the Bill was to achieve its objective. Lumumba described the bill as one which the PPP could embrace as it was never accused of denying any racial grouping its right to participate in an free and fair election. He welcomed the Bill because he said that it placed dialogue and mediation as the main weapons for settling disputes.
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