…the Judiciary
Back in 2012, the now Attorney General Basil Williams waxed eloquently on the floor of the National Assembly (“basking in the gaze of two Senior Counsels”, he gushed) as he supported the move to increase the independence of the Judiciary by having them paid directly from the Consolidated Funds, without the intermediation of the Executive. Preventing their “mouth being muzzled” and all that.
Almost in indignation, he hurled Article 122A(1) to the PPP MP’s across the aisle: “All courts and all persons presiding over the courts shall exercise their functions independently of the control and direction of any other person or authority, and shall be free and independent from political, executive, and any other form of direction and control.”
One wonders what’s happened to his solicitude for judicial independence as he snipes at Chancellor of the Judiciary Carl Singh, for just doing his job – trying to expeditiously clear up his backlog at the Court of Appeal. After all, Williams and Prezzie couldn’t have made it more pellucid they wanted to see the back of the Chancellor ASAP, than placing ads in the papers for his replacement! Technically, according to the Constitution (Art 197), a Chancellor doesn’t have to retire until 68 and Carl Singh’s only going to be 65 come February 23. But unfortunately, Singh is still “acting” – because the PNC always nixed his substantive confirmation. And so, like any other Judge, 65 is sayonara time for him.
Your Eyewitness doesn’t even have to mention that even at this late state, if Prezzie consults with the Opposition Leader, Singh can be allowed to stay on to 68. Ain’t gonna happen. It’s clear – like in the famous calypso by Chalkdust on another legal luminary “Karl” and his battles with T&T’s PM Eric Williams – the Government of AG Basil Williams “too ‘fraid ah Carl”!! But why is that? After all, unlike the ambitious Karl Hudson-Philips, who was threatening Eric Williams politically, Guyana’s Carl has never shown the slightest inclination for a political role off the bench. Even though he does have an impeccable political pedigree! There are two theories floating around Croal Street and further afield.
One is the decisions Singh’s handing down aren’t the ones the Government wants. But whatever happened to the Government’s respect for the qualities Prezzie assures us are immanent in Judges – “integrity, independence and impartiality”? If Singh is to just do as the Government wishes, wouldn’t he be destroying Prezzie’s faith in Judges. And forced to appoint any “fit and proper” hoi polloi to chair GECOM?
But the other theory is Basil Williams is REALLY deathly “fraid a Carl”!! Mano-a-mano fear!!
Your Eyewitness wonders why?!!
…the PPP’s base
Well, at long last the Government’s come out and told it like how they see “it” with the sugar industry – they’re gonna close it down. In the words of its Chairman of the Board – that staunch Marxist Clive Thomas, who had railed for most of his life against the “capitalist running dogs” exploiting the “working class” – GuySuCo doesn’t make “business sense”!! It doesn’t get more ironic than that, does it?
The man who advocated breaking ALL links with the West because of the structural nature of the exploitative relationships, using the logic of capitalism? Whatever happened to the socialist concern for “working people”? Isn’t he, as a matter of fact, a co-leader of the WORKING PEOPLE’S ALLIANCE?
But some say “working peoples” aren’t all the same – and while Clive Thomas has always embraced this view – it’s only after the PPP got into office, he’s come out of the closet.
Race matters!
…bush impulses
According to a report by the Stabber, at the above meeting when ESC Chair Irfaan Ali was questioning the GuySuCo team – as was his or any other member of the Committee’s prerogative – ESC member and Minister, Simona “I is” Broomes, “‘sucked’ her teeth.”
Ali shouldn’t have “upbraided” her. That’s how approval’s shown in the bush!
