Dear Editor,
We write in relation to the article carried in your newspaper of Monday, December 30, 2013 on page 11 under the headline ‘Ten-member ERC to include cultural/ethnic groups reps.’ The article states, quoting from a report from the Committee on Appointments, that among the list of entities eligible to nominate members to the ERC, there were four that were unclassified. National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahai’s in Guyana [sic] is one of the four which were written to find out which religious category (Hindu, Christian or Muslim) they preferred to be included in to be consulted concerning the submission of nominees. The article goes on to name the two groups which responded and to state that the other two groups failed to respond. Since the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Guyana was not named as one of the groups that responded, the inference is that it is one of the religious organizations which failed to respond.
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Guyana received no written correspondence concerning this matter. We received a telephone call from a member of “the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments” asking our preference about being placed in one of the three religious categories named above, and our response was that given that the Baha’i Faith is an independent world religion we did not fit into any of the named categories. The Baha’i Faith is the youngest of the world’s independent religions. Its founder, Baha’u’llah (1817-1892), is regarded by Baha’is as the most recent in the line of Manifestations or Messengers of God that stretches back beyond recorded time and that includes Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Christ and Muhammad.
Yours faithfully,
Jennifer Dewar
for Office of External Affairs
