Professor Rudolph James, who heads the Law Faculty at University of Guyana (UG), said representative democracy, which augured well at the dawn of a new era of transparency and accountability, gave way, too easily, to ethnic insecurity arising from the rule of the majority.

But he said it was unnecessary for him to critique the concept any further because much has been written and spoken of the ‘winner take all' principle and the 'spoils of victory'.

“These are essentially principles of war, not peace," he declared in a speech to British Guiana Education Trust (BGET) Alumni Association eighth Annual Dinner last week.

Speaking to about 70 former students and their guests at Georgetown Club in Camp Street, Dr James titled his address ‘Food For Thought’.

He remains supportive of Arthur Lewis's proposals for diffusion of power in order to resolve the difficulties of the current situation.

According to James, “it is an understatement to say that we live in troubled times. Our nation is consumed by crime both white collar and crimes of violence”.

He said law enforcement is undermined by the political culture that debunks principles of right reasoning and elevates the competitiveness of politics to the forefront.

"Politics has become a game between the ruling and opposition parties. The danger is that the playing of the game has become an end in itself and our many problems and their solutions are relegated to a permanent back seat," James asserted.

He said, in terms of the Constitution, the classical concept of parliamentary sovereignty is displaced by a shift in the balance of power in favour of the Executive over the Legislature and the absence of appropriate checks and balances to control executive freedom.

“In short, the issue of accountability and answerability of the executive branch of Government remains at large.

"We have, whether intentionally or not, eclipsed the role of the Judiciary by acts of commission and omission of members of the Executive," James charged, adding that constitutional reform by the Select Committee of Parliamentarians was tinkering with the system.

He said hopes for change were pinned on conventional human rights and social welfare measures through the Ethnic Relations Commission, Human Rights Commission and Public Procurement Commission.

However, notwithstanding the good intentions, in reality, these will never be staffed or financed and are like white elephants, James said.

Reviewing the alternatives submitted to the Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC), he said a return to the post Independence Westminster model, which separates Head of State from Head of Government and has a functioning parliament, is unattainable.

James said a government of national unity or power sharing, although initially rejected by the People’s National Congress (PNC), is the choice of civil society, although it could be short lived, as were recent attempts in other multi-ethnic societies.

He noted that in South Africa it lasted three years and, in Fiji, where it was introduced in 1999, parties with more than 10 per cent of the vote had to be included in the Cabinet.

James, who lived in Papua, New Guinea for a number of years before remigrating here, said a forced coalition of incompatibles is likely to produce an intensely charged and tension oriented government, rather than one party dominance as perceived by The United Force (TUF) Leader, Mr. Manzoor Nadir.

The UG Professor said the historical records of the two major parties leave one in no doubt about dissension in matters of national interest, though they compromise in matters of their private (party) interest.

He said the PNC preference for shared governance, that is, Parliamentary Committees to outwit Cabinet government, with the Opposition members chairing the committees, could be no more than a pious hope.

"We need to revisit those submissions to the CRC, which define an alternative concept of democracy, namely, participatory democracy or empowerment, achievable only by structural changes," James contended.

He said Rise, Organise and Rebuild (ROAR) Leader, Mr. Ravi Dev, who advocated federalism, was closer to the mark, though his formula for three states is a recipe for secession in times of crises between the states or the states and the centre.

“My preference is for Arthur Lewis's proposals for diffusion of power to the regions. Central to his model is fiscal arrangements to enable each Region to be self-reliant for finance.

"The constituency electoral system with a right to recall, in place of the list system, is a surer method of shifting allegiance from the party leadership to the constituency," he said.

BGET was a merger, in 1950, of three private secondary schools, Washington High School, Modern Academy and Repton High School.

The merged entity operated from ‘The Auditorium’ in Charlotte Street, Lacytown, Georgetown, until about 1965 when it was amalgamated with Alleyne High School.

James attended Washington High School and alumni officials said it is customary that the Guest Speaker for such an occasion should be a former student of BGET or of the schools in the amalgam prior to the merger and must have distinguished himself/herself in his/her chosen field.