…Chair urges complainants to be patient
Chairman of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), John Smith said on Tuesday that the complaints against ERC Commissioner, Roshan Khan, for racist and inciteful remarks made on social media, have been sent to the Investigative Unit which will examine whether Khan is in the wrong.
Should the investigation prove Khan as culpable, it is likely that action will have to come from the level of the President. Earlier on Tuesday, Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Harmon wrote to the Prime Minister and carbon copied the letter to the Smith, formally requesting that Khan be removed.
“The letter has gone to the Investigative Unit,” Smith told the Village Voice. “They will investigate the matter and then they will make a report back to the Commission.” It is possible that the President will have to make the final decision on the possible removal of a Commissioner as the Constitution does not address how the Commission should deal with such cases.
The ERC is a Constitutional body established by the Constitution (Amendment) (No.2) Act No.11 of 2000. The ERC submits annual reports to the National Assembly and must seek approval from the Assembly for the making of rules in relation to the procedures of the Commission. If the Office of a Commissioner becomes vacant for whatever reason, it speaks only to the appointment of a person to function in their place and not to the circumstances which can lead to this.
Branching off to a broader topic, the newspaper pressed Smith on the many criticisms leveled against the Commission, more so recently, during the breakdown of race relations during the 2020 General and Regional Elections and after the death of two Afro-Guyanese teens, Isaiah and Joel Henry.
“Everybody has their own view and they don’t know the regulations as to how we operate…everybody expects that once they make a complaint there [are results] and, on the other hand, some people believe they’re innocent and we have to work with them. We’re caught between the devil and the deep sea. But we don’t just rush to judgement, we do an investigation,” Smith said.
According to the Constitution, one of the functions of the ERC is to “investigate complaints of racial discrimination and make recommendations on the measure to be taken if such complaints are valid, and where there is justification therefor, refer matters to the Human Rights Commission or other relevant authorities for further action to be taken”.
Though the Commission has been given $220,802,000 in Budget 2020, the ERC Chair said that it is not about the funds. He said that what the ERC needs is an understanding from the public that it only has 10 Commissioners with a staff of 31 persons to addresses the complaints which pour in daily.
He said that the Commission also has to deal with the seemingly never-ending abrasive remarks that are made on social media with no means to track every individual. Smith hopes that the Cyber Crime Act will help put an end to this.
“The biggest challenge really is Facebook. But now with there seeming to be some traction on the Cyber Crime Law, that will make it a little easier for us to find the right person. Some of them are overseas and what appears on Facebook is from somebody till in Timbuktu, [but] there’s no way we can get to Timbuktu and get to that person. So, we need understanding from the Community because we’ve been slaughtered left, right and center.”
The ERC is expected to be non-political body established to promote ethnic harmony and security in Guyana. Its serves to promote that an informed and educated society is more predisposed to tolerate, respect and accommodate the diverse cultures, religious and ethnicities that constitute the Guyanese society.
