Constitution reform must be priority for all parties

Dear Editor,

It would be very inspiring, most meaningful, to hear and learn that all political parties make constitutional reform their first priority; all of them. I would applaud the new political arrivals, if each make such reform their raison d’etre. Whether they obtained one seat or many or none, I think that this is the best service that they can offer to this country, the most-needed area in which they could make their presence felt, no matter how minute; no matter whether inside parliament or elsewhere.

I readily agree that crime reduction and poverty amelioration and infrastructure development and so much more are matters of high priority. No arguments nor pushback here. But I still insist that the highest priority, and by a country mile, must be constitutional reform. If the established political heavyweights commit to dedicating genuine and wholesale energies to this reform, then the newcomers should work with them.

On the other hand, if it is the usual now you see me, now you don’t vacillations by the PPP and PNC, then the fresh groups should band together if only to pursue this single reform objective. Legitimate. Substantive. And far-reaching. In the process, they could succeed in making life miserable for the stubborn and self-serving political mules and skunks.

As said earlier, this purpose does not have to be from within parliament alone. While a seat (seats) would be most helpful for steady visibility and powerful voice, it should not be considered a handicap to operate outside of that body. I would exhort taking the issue before the public and in the most sustained way possible.

The running of political campaigns calls for money. The fact that a few groups have emerged to announce presence and candidacy indicates some source of funding, some plan on how and where to concentrate energies.

I think that some funding and much energy should be reserved for something of the gravity and urgency of constitutional reform. In some many areas of that compendium, there is dire need for amendments.

I suggest scrapping the whole perverse product and starting over from the beginning with what would work for us, what would take us someplace else, and what may-just may-make a better society out of this morass. I say this because what we have, in whichever way looked at, in the universe of its parts and reaches, is almost like a Botticelli canvas.

It has purpose for a scurrilous few; extremely provocative to many; passed by and peed upon (pardon me) by the thoroughly disgusted and sickened. In addition, like such a painting, it has its admirers (for the worst of reasons), and is subject to every interpretation under the sun, some of which range from the ostensibly sublime all the way down to what is definitely of the cerebral septic tank.

I encourage those who take umbrage, to pause and reflect upon what has happened and how we have been since December 21, 2018. Only in what is, at this point, just under one year, and a single year only. Who could do what? Who should stay where? Who should depart when? What is the meaning of this and that -sometimes literally?

Regrettably, the Guyana Constitution has transformed into what it was really intended to be: a playground for political scoundrels and political parasites. Its pages and provisions have also become a now enduring kind of habitat: it is a snake pit for snake charmers of the most unscrupulous variety.

Thus, we hiss menace and spew venom in the eyes and consciousness of each other with all aplomb, while congratulating ourselves as to how serpentine we have become. And how dumb and ignorant are those who do not agree with us. To some degree, the constitution has been the backbone that facilitates such an environment.

For clearly, since December 21st, this nation has been crippled; and just as clearly, governance has been an exercise characterized more by dispute and defiance, intense drag, and zero movement towards the progressive or the significant.

It has been a concoction, a ramshackle one, that floats along with a few things getting done, while the real issues languish unattended and unfulfilled. For a poor nation poised at where Guyana is, this is unaffordable. For a divided people, this is evidence of still further devastation.

The onus is, therefore, on the little people and the new people to take a stand. If they are going to stand for something, one thing only, it should be about constitutional reform. They must not view themselves as political parties and entities foremost anymore.

They must envision themselves as social engineers, and missionaries embarking on a journey of little reward and no return, come what may. They must be pressure group and interest group. The sole interest must be constitutional reform.

All roads lead there. All circumstances demand such. All enhancements will flow from such irreversible paramountcy of priority and unswerving conviction that this is the best way, the only way, to make a difference through presence, energy, and visions of what could follow.

We can ease or fix all the other controversies, but if substantive constitutional reform remains a mirage, the bridge not taken, then it is the same treadmill of futility and failure. That is, as if we have done nothing.

Look at us: we are as good as any, if not better, at spouting scripture, Socrates, and Seneca. We can quote from the Lord Denning, Blackstone, and Hammurabi. Utterly lovely. I suggest that we discard, if not burn, all of those, as profound and majestic as they may be. Let us show for once something is by us, of us, for us.

Let us bend knee and work tirelessly to deliver to nation and self that which is of our hand and by our hand and from our own heart and head. It starts with true constitutional reform.

Yours faithfully,

GHK Lall