Dear Editor,
I refer to a letter in the 7th May 2011 edition of SN captioned `A vast number of Guyanese support the work of the ERC’ written by one Yolanda Ward, in it she describes how many meetings the ERC held in the last six months. Editor how many meetings the ERC held in the past six months is of little interest to me, it is what they said at those meetings which would be of interest, but I actually went through the list very carefully and I did not see the PNC, the PPP, the AFC, ACDA, CIOG, or the Maha Sabha mentioned, one would have imagined that these would be the organisations which would occupy the ERC’s attention, instead of the numerous and scattered meetings which were mentioned in the letter, but Mr. Editor numerous meetings attract what has come to be known as “sitting fees” so the more meetings the more lucrative. In my discussions with senior members of the main opposition party, I got the distinct impression they do not recognise the ERC since they do not recognise the IRO at this time. I believe that today the PNC’s case objecting to the constitutionality of the ERC at this time will be heard in court to resolve this issue. This confirmed my view that for this commission to function legally it needs a 2/3 parliamentary vote to recognise the IRO, since the opposition has irreconcilable difficulties with the appointment of the current head of the ERC and the organisation which put his name up this time around. They are maintaining that the ERC, in effect, cannot be a legally constituted entity at this time. They have also assured me that their interpretation of the entire situation which I outlined for the public in my commentary regarding the agenda of the current ERC is not inconsistent with mine.
In the KN of 12th May, 2011 there is another letter from two ministers of the IRO accusing me of numerous transgressions. Mr Editor I have spoken to many important church leaders and again whilst I cannot disclose their names, they are in complete disagreement with many of the IRO principles especially as it pertains to the government financing a religious channel. They see it as a dangerous and controlling situation very much as the editorial of the Sunday Stabroek, February 20th 2011 did, and I have to tell you that I am assured that in Guyana the mainstream Hindu and Christian groups [I did not check with any Muslim leaders as yet I have to be honest, it is not a slight to the Muslim religion but I just did not make contact with the person I wanted to speak to, I was trying to contact my boyhood friend who is very high up in the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana today, we both went to St. Joseph’s High School then located in Charlestown, Georgetown many years ago] but those I spoke to do not agree with the IRO or an Interfaith channel, but being church leaders they are unlikely to get embroiled in a public religious dispute as the two religious persons who signed the letter on the 12th have done.
I know that I was blunt in the way I presented this situation in my commentary, but I think that in view of the reaction I invoked, bluntness was what was needed, and it has done what I wanted it to do, to raise public awareness to this situation by forcing it into public view and to ask the mainstream religious leaders to act before it is too late. I see political control of religion as a very dangerous development and we have to work together to stop it. I am not trying to divide anything; I am trying to unite it, but to unite it, we have to break the cycle of disunity that has developed simply to put one man in the ERC.
There is one apology which I may have to make, to my Catholic Church since whilst they have withdrawn from the Guyana Council of Churches they may not have in fact joined the IRO, this being the case until I understand differently I offer the Bishop of the Catholic Church in Guyana my profoundest apology, but I ask him to reconsider re-joining the Guyana Council of Churches to unify it and strengthen it against the current onslaught.
I am going to end by quoting Edmund Burke, statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher until it becomes a battle cry for this nation at all levels and I have made it mine, “Evil triumphs when good men do nothing”. I am therefore calling on all “good men” to do something.
Yours faithfully,
Tony Vieira
