Dear Editor,
As a citizen of my beloved country, Guyana, I have a suggestion for consideration by the Constitutional Reform Commission, when it meets to discuss reform of the Constitution. I refer to the criteria which must be met to make one eligible for election to the office of president, and to parliament.
Guyana is a democratic country, where the government is elected by the majority of the people who voted. Since our Constitution absolves the president from any criminal or civil acts, compounded by the fact that a mere simple majority in Parliament empowers him/her to do as he pleases with the country’s resources, I believe citizens have a right to ensure that the people who vie for election to the offices of president and members of Parliament are properly screened to make them eligible for election to those offices.
Citizens have a duty therefore to request the urgent amendment of the current criteria for election of the president and members of Parliament. The revised criteria must carry more substance and be elevated beyond the obvious and mundane – like citizenship, residency, language, etc, currently stipulated in the Constitution.
Chief amongst any revised criteria must be one’s integrity. Editor, yes, we are talking here about one’s character – who one really is; one’s honesty and trustworthiness, or lack thereof. This I believe could be the antidote to the toxic and divisive nature of our politics.
With our new-found wealth, our country’s budgets have risen to over a trillion dollars annually. That’s a lot of money in the hands of our government. And it creates tremendous temptations, or might I say opportunities, for mischief or financial misconduct. So, we the citizens must do what we can to prevent or minimise the abuse or misuse of our country’s resources.
With our country’s future well-being at stake, we must be able to Trust the people we elect to be custodians and managers of our vast resources. We must be assured that those people would operate and function in the best interest of all the people and not only those who support or voted for them.
Regarding Trust, Editor, permit me to share this quote by Dr. Stephen Covey, from one of his international best sellers: – The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything.
“There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organisation, nation, economy, and civilisations throughout the world. One thing which if removed will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love. On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to create unparallel success and prosperity in every dimension of life. Yet it is the least understood, most neglected, most underestimated possibility of our time. That one thing is Trust.”
To those who aspire to leadership, take a deep breath – let that sink in!
And the Speaker shouldn’t be given a free pass either.