Georgetown : ‘Reform Work’ for Guyana’s National Assembly was discussed during the 2015 Mexico Open Government Summit, which recently ended in Mexico City, Mexico. According to Guyana’s Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, discussions were held between him and Helen Clark, the former three-time Prime Minister of New Zeeland.
PM Nagamootoo explained that Ms. Clark reminded him of the work already put in by her late colleague, Sir Paul Reeves, to reform the National Assembly, and “which reforms are being implemented by our Coalition Government.”
Sir Paul Reeves once served as the Special Envoy of the Commonwealth to facilitate political dialogue during tense elections periods in Guyana, in the early 2000 era. He played an instrumental role, in supporting the creation of a political environment, where fair and peaceful elections became a reality in Guyana. Sir Paul is on record as spending time with Guyana's two major political parties’ heads during his tenure as Special Envoy of the Commonwealth; Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo's People's Progressive Party, and Desmond Hoyte's People's National Congress, to "promote national unity.”
According to the PM, Ms. Clark, the first woman Administrator of the UNDP, and himself had a “healthy exchanging of views about the functioning of Guyana's Parliament.”
Clark remains an iconic figure in world politics, currently functioning as the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). As Prime Minister, she served three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008, and her present post is the third-highest UN position.
Prime Minister Nagamootoo currently holds the responsibility for domestic national affairs and the chairing of the Cabinet; he was at the forefront of recommending Ministerial appointments and providing the organisational structures of Ministries for the approval of the President; nominating the Heads of Agencies and Non-Constitutional Commissions with the required and agreed democratic mechanisms of consultation and also domestic security.
At his swearing-in, he declared that “I will be fully occupied but I will pay special attention to information and constitutional reform. Those are two big areas because we had promised the Guyanese people that we would have constitutional reform so I will pay special attention to that.”
At this 2015 Summit, “the principles of transparency, accountability, citizen participation and innovation” were all highlighted, and in this vein, the Guyanese PM is expected to work even harder, as the Coalition Government is keeping its pledge to bring about Constitutional reform, with the full participation of the people, “to put the necessary checks and balances in place to consolidate Guyana’s “ethos of liberal democracy.”
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