Despite yet another poor attendance by the APNU/AFC Opposition at a parliamentary constitutional reform committee meeting on Friday, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government went ahead and submitted its proposals for the composition of the Constitutional Reform Commission.
This was revealed by Chairman of the Constitutional Reform Committee, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, who along with his Government colleagues, turned up to essentially “empty benches” at the Parliament Building on Friday.
The only Opposition Member who attended was Raphael Trotman, who joined via Zoom but left in midst of the meeting without making any contributions. Hours prior to the commencement of the meeting, three other Opposition Members – Khemraj Ramjattan, Amanza Walton-Desir, and Geeta Chandan-Edmond – indicated that they were unavailable to attend.
This is the second time majority of the Opposition Members have displayed poor attendance at the committee meeting. A similar situation played out in April and at the time, Ramjattan was quoted by Stabroek News saying that if the Government is serious about moving the process along then it should have gone ahead with it especially since the Opposition, himself, in particular, had already indicated support for moving forward.
Nevertheless, at Friday’s meeting, Nandlall proposed that the Constitutional Reform Commission be established by law and that the members be appointed by the President. As previously indicated, Government submitted that 50 per cent of the Commission’s membership comes from both sides in the National Assembly and the other 50 per cent from civil society organisations such as the labour movement, Private Sector Commission, Guyana Bar Association, religious organisations, farmers’ organisations and organisations representing women and youth.
The proposal also included that the Chairperson of the Commission be appointed by the President in his deliberate judgement.
“Those basic provisions will begin to be crafted into a Bill and then the other consequential provisions will be added to the Bill to ensure that the commission is able to discharge its mandate. The terms of reference will be established; the financing arrangements will be established in the Bill, as well as how the procedure of the Commission will unfold. Those issues will have to be decided upon in the committee and of course, taken to our respective principals for approval because the Bill will be in draft form.”
“Hopefully, we find consensus and we can push the process forward because this is very important and not much work has been done having regard to the time that has already elapsed since Parliament began to sit,” the Attorney General stated after Friday’s meeting.
In addition to its poor attendance, the coalition Opposition has also failed to present its proposal to the committee despite being allotted time to do so after requesting same.
According to Nandlall, the Opposition has demonstrated that they are not prepared to discharge the mandate of their responsibilities. He explained that the constitutional reform process requires a parliamentary majority in order to have the constitutional amendments.
“It is our expectation that the Opposition and the Government will, as far as, possible work consensually because in the absence of bipartisan cooperation, not much can be achieved in a constitutional reform process. But the Opposition has shown, demonstrably in other areas, that they are not prepared to discharge the mandate of their responsibilities,” the AG contended.
He outlined that the APNU/AFC Opposition has been displaying this behaviour since the PPP/C Administration took office, first by then Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon and now his successor Aubrey Norton.
Nandlall reminded that Norton has already refused to turn up to a meeting with President Dr Irfaan Ali for consultations on the appointment of members of various constitutional bodies.
“Is it that on every location where the Government requires or is required to engage with the Opposition, the Government must await the Opposition? Endure the incompetence and ineptitude that seemed to permeate the Opposition? I don’t think that a Government should be burdened like that. We are committed to discharging the mandate given to us by the people of our country. We have a manifesto, a pact with the people of Guyana and we intend to deliver on that programme. Part of that programme is constitutional reform.”
“If it is that the Opposition wishes to dilate, if it is that they wish to default, if it is that they wish to procrastinate or simply refuse to carry out their mandate and their promises, well that’s a matter for them. But the Government can’t allow that to cripple us and prevent us from moving the country forward. So, we have decided, unfortunately, to move in the direction that we have [on Friday] and if the Opposition is not prepared to come on board, well that’s quite unfortunate. All we can do at this stage is to demonstrate to the public, demonstrate to the people our willingness, our preparedness to deliver on what we have promised,” Nandlall asserted.
