By Dr Bertrand Ramcharan BA (Hons), Philosophy, BA (Hons) History, PH.D, Law.
Barrister-at-Law
Seventh Chancellor of the University of Guyana
The designation of A Presidential Advisory Panel on Ethics in Governance would be a worthwhile and historic step in helping to guide the future governance of Guyana. The President could invite in for a conversation towards this end Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University. Professor Appiah has been writing a column, “The Ethicist” for the New York Times since 2015 and has written frequently in the New York Review of Books. His Ethicist column gives advice on ethical conduct in a wide variety of situations.
Professor Appiah, Silver Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University, grew up in Ghana, was educated at Cambridge University, where he received both a B.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy. He taught previously at the Universities of Ghana, Cambridge, Yale, Cornell, Duke, Harvard and Princeton. His books include The Ethics of Identity, Cosmopolitanism, The Honour Code, Rethinking Identity. Professor Appiah has Ghanaian, British and American roots. His background and scholarship render him ideally suited for a discussion on the future of ethical governance in a plural society such as Guyana. Witness his books on the Ethics of Identity; and Rethinking Identity.
Disclosure: I read Professor Appiah while doing an honours degree in philosophy at the University of London, but have never met him.
Ever since its independence in 1966, Guyana has been troubled by ethical issues in governance – whichever party has been in power: allegations of fraudulent elections, assertions of party paramountcy over all institutions, including the judiciary, rigged referenda, fiscal unaccountability, appropriations of state property, sudden wealth-accumulation by governing cadres, and excesses in the exercise of presidential power – under both of the two main parties.
Guyana has a special opportunity to come together now as a nation, a nation of unity in diversity: abundant resources, fertile lands, a land of many waters, richly-endowed natural resources, and a people blessed with talent and good will. A mantra of the governing party is ‘One People’, grounded in the national motto of ‘One Nation, One People, One Destiny’. Yet, the nation is riven with divisions in the political realm and this, combined with the presidential system of government, contributes to divisions and divisiveness in the body politic.
Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, having written highly-regarded books on Identity, and on Rethinking Identity, would be in an ideal situation to advise the President, and indeed all political parties on how to build the future governance of Guyana on ethical foundations. This would be a step forward in nation-building.
The President is young and energetic, and certainly desires to promote national unity. Yet, he is inevitably a practitioner of party politics. At the same time, he has a duty to the nation to promote ethical governance and the designation of an Advisory Panel on Ethics in Governance could help him, the political parties represented in Parliament, and Guyanese society at large on how to build confidence in governance in a plural society.
The Leader of the Opposition is younger still, energetic, a successful businessman, who is currently dealing with a legal challenge to extradite him to the USA. Relations between the governing party and the Opposition leader are combustible. This is a situation in which an Ethicist of Professor Appiah’s caliber could advise all concerned on how to proceed in the national interest. A reading of Professor Appiah’s columns, The Ethicist, dealing with practical ethical issues will convince the reader that he could be of infinitesimal value to the Dear Land of Guyana.
This is a time in the history of international and national governance when the advice of Ethicists is being sought increasingly. Pope Francis’ seminal Encyclical on climate change, Laudato Si’ was instrumental in bringing about the Paris climate change accord. Pope Leo XIV recently published “Magnifica Humanitas”, which carries the sub-title: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence”. Pope Leo writes: “We must lovingly safeguard the grandeur of humanity bestowed upon us …the splendour of which no machine can ever replace.”
“No computational system”, Pope Leo adds, “however sophisticated, can create a heart that gives itself, or a conscience that discerns good from evil.” It is our finitude and our vulnerability that keeps us open to one another and to the transcendent. The magnificence of our humanity is inseparable from the combination of glory and fragility.
Writing in the Financial Times on 25 July, 2026, Carmody Grey, Professor of Integral Ecology at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and of the LSE, comments that behind AI and the ecological crisis lies what Pope Leo calls “a culture of power”, which regards nature and people simply as raw material. “Instead of thinking about AI itself, we should be thinking about its effects. It concentrates power: it obfuscates accountability; it further despoils nature and climate; it is a means of the wholesale expropriation of cultures, languages and lands for massive profits and it will probably make us lonelier and stupider.” Professor Carmody Grey was invited by the AI firm Anthropic to discuss “AI’s quest for morality.”
In Guyana there are numerous issues that could benefit from ethical reflection and advice: ecological management; resource management and allocation; inter-group relations; claims for justice by different peoples and groups in Guyana; justice for Guyana’s indigenous peoples; inter-generational justice; the promotion and protection of human rights; and ethics in governance.
We also have a talent pool of ethical thought among Guyanese religious and ethical leaders, trained philosophers at the University of Guyana and elsewhere, and social and philosophical thinkers of Guyanese heritage. The President could draw upon them in establishing an Advisory Panel on Ethics in Governance.
He could start with a conversation with Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah. This would be an enlightening way of enriching his Presidency and elevating the standards of governance in the Dear Land of Guyana.
Discussion