Dear Editor,
It is worthy of note that after several meetings involving their high representatives and between His Excellency the President and the Leader of the Opposition, a consensus Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) was appointed on Friday, July 26, 2019 by His Excellency the President. The new Chair of GECOM, Madame Justice Claudette Singh, SC, CCH has had a distinguished legal career and a track record of high quality performance. She is deserving of our appreciation and our support.
The dialogue, negotiations and outcome of the process to select a Chair of GECOM may have been tortuous and frustrating but the fact that a successful outcome has been achieved prompts me to pen this letter.
It has been stated, ad nauseam, that Guyana must move beyond divisive politics and lack of trust, and its parties must find a way to work constructively for the good of the country. Having been involved in the decades of the 2000s and 2010s as a member of a group that facilitated dialogue among our political parties and civil society, I am reminded of the hard work and passionate commitment of my deceased friends and colleagues Hugh Cholmondeley, Miles Fitzpatrick and Haslyn Parris and of the follow up efforts by those who are still very much alive, to evolve a social contract between Government, politicians and civil society and its organisations, that provides for the full, active and collective participation of all citizens in decisions that affect their well-being.
We need a system of governance that is inclusive, based on the principle of national unity, grounded on a platform of a Revised Constitution, and that places the interests of the people first, along with a consensus approach to national development planning and implementation.
It is easier said than done but where there is a will, there is a way.
Robert Frost in his poem ‘The Road Not Taken’, says it best:
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference”
Yours faithfully,
Joseph G Singh
Major General (retd)
