THE Stabroek News headline on Monday, March 31 proved to me that the Stabroek News is suffering from tunnel vision.

The lecture delivered by Sir James Mitchell which I was fortunate to hear a recording of, was well done. Given that it was a lecture in memory of the late Desmond Hoyte. The reminiscing was interesting for persons interested in history.

What, however, was clear to me is that Sir James and Mr Hoyte were very good friends. And that he did play a part in getting Hoyte to agree to hold free and fair elections in Guyana which allowed the PPP under Dr Jagan to assume Office.

But Stabroek News missed a lot that they could have picked up on given that it was relevant to them.

The fact that it was at the 1986 meeting with Hoyte that the removal of the ban on news print was brokered seemed to have conveniently missed that attention of the Stabroek news even though the removal of that ban was integral to its existence today.

Sir James has gone wrong in his analysis of the situation with regards to race in Guyana. His reference to the constitution being responsible for the foreign debt and the value of our currency is also incomprehensible.

Is it that he has been, as he said happened when Hoyte died, not paying attention to news from the Caribbean. For him to make such remarks at a public forum without having all the facts is astonishing.

Guyana’s foreign debt has been decreasing yearly through debt write-offs and a restructuring that has been constant in the economy from about US$2.1B in 1992 to just about US$700M in 2008.

He also failed to mention that the evolution of a constitution that best suits Guyana could only be done through a process that will take time and thought. We have had democracy in Guyana for just about 15 years and during that time there have been remarkable changes in the constitution.

The Parliamentary system is under reform with the sub-committees becoming stronger, as a new culture to use these systems are being learnt.

The establishment of the constitutional commissions and committees (Ethnic Relations, Indigenous People’s and Integrity commissions and the Sectoral committees on Social Services, Foreign Relations and Economic services) are all part of the reform process.

There are also a Standing Committee on Constitutional Reform and a Parliamentary management Committee.

Additionally there is new procurement legislation and for the first time in the history, restrictions on the term of the President.

The Regional system is also being strengthened with the radical reforms to the Local Government system under review by the Constitutional Reform Commission.

Additionally public consultations are being held on several issues that affect the quality of life of our people. These may seem as baby steps but they are giant leaps when one compares it to where we were in 1992.

These are just some of the changes that happened between 1992 and 2008, which could only be described a radical.

What seems to be clear here is that Mitchell is not au fait with the many changes that have been effected to the constitution since the PPP/C assumed office in 1992.
EDWARD SIMON