Guyana can find solutions - Commonwealth Secretary General
COMMONWEALTH Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, is confident Guyana can find solutions to its current problems because its leaders seem to have a vision for a united and stable country. Addressing the 20-member Constitution Reform Commission at the Park Hotel in Georgetown yesterday afternoon, he urged them to produce ideas for a united Guyana, warning of divisiveness in a pluralistic society. He said the group has an historic responsibility to ensure the vision of a united and stable nation is realised, pointing out that recent events here have "started a drift, which if not arrested could drift to the stage that all of you in this room will thoroughly regret." "Your responsibility now (is) for producing ideas, for shaping the constitution of this country in a way that the constitution can tackle the main problem and so pre-empt any need for a drift continuing", Anyaoku advised. He yesterday met Prime Minister Sam Hinds, acting President in the absence from the country of President Janet Jagan, and leader of the main minority People's National Congress (PNC), Mr. Desmond Hoyte. He told the Chronicle the separate talks went well but declined to go into details. The Commonwealth Secretary General, on his arrival Thursday, said he hoped to re-energise the stalled structured dialogue brokered by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) between the two main political parties. Anyaoku said he has been following the situation in Guyana closely, noting it was clear the country was at a cross-road. "The emerging challenge for the world over, the challenge which is being faced in many parts of the world, is the challenge of managing pluralism," he told the commission. "If you look around the world today and identify the trouble spots...places of high political tension and places of armed conflict - they are almost all of them invariably places where pluralism has been allowed to become divisive and sought to spur tensions and conflicts." Referring to the Kosovo crisis, and problems in Africa, Asia and Northern Ireland, Anyaoku said these can all be attributed to plural societies. He said in these pluralist societies, sentiments for a harmonious and united country are being progressively swept away and being replaced by views which seek to exploit the differences. "They are sentiments that are often exploited for political purposes. The politicians who want to win votes exploit these differences. "These differences have largely been ethnic or religious," the Secretary General pointed out. Anyaoku said this phenomenon manifests itself in ways peculiar to each country, but said each country has to have its own national effort. "I would not want to suggest that the challenge you face in this country is exactly the challenge faced in any other country. Each country has its own national circumstances," he emphasised. Anyaoku, who had earlier said the Commonwealth was prepared to provide whatever assistance it can to the constitution reform process here, promised to provide similar experiences of other countries for the commission. He said the situation in Guyana has often times reminded him of how certain developments began in other countries, "whose fortunes eventually became more troublesome and became more worrying." The Secretary General later held informal discussions with commissioners who were to resume afterward, to receive an oral presentation from the PNC. Anyaoku is expected be at the Iwokrama Rainforest Programme all day today. (MICHELLE ELPHAGE) 
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