President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) – Justice Adrian Saunders retired after 20 years of yeoman service to Caribbean jurisprudential development. Saunders was there from the very beginning when in 2005 when the court started operating from its seat in Port of Spain, Trinidad. With him were two Guyanese legal luminaries – who’ve sadly passed on: Justices Desiree Bernard and Duke Pollard. The CCJ is a critical institution in our overall efforts to become independent after being colonized for four centuries by the European powers.
Think about it – we’ve focused totally on the political leadership – with the emphasis on “lead”: in a word who’s gonna replace Massa!! But sixty years after “book” independence, we gotta ask whether we might’ve lost sight of the forest for the (legal) trees?? And one of those forests is that there’s always a struggle for office – or power to be honest! Societies can descend into anarchy unless there are first of all rules of the (political) game and secondly – some body (institution) to ensure those rules are followed.
Yes…those Brits especially insisted on rules. Even when they were oppressing us they oppressed according to rules they set for themselves!! And interpreted in their favour. As time went by after some criticized the court system that developed, they introduced Appellate Courts to answer the question – who will judge the judges?
But in Guyana after independence, Burnham decided that even the Appellate Court had to be subservient to the PNC – and actually flew their flag over the Appeal Court’s building!! Now before we’d gotten independence, folks could appeal all the way up to the British highest appeal court – the Privy Council. Since this could crimp Burnham’s (crooked) style, he declared us a republic in 1970 and abolished recourse to the Privy Council . He said it was a “colonial” remnant – as if his replacement was any better!!
But he did help establish Caricom in 1973 with the Treaty of Chaguaramas (ToC) and after he and his peers passed by 2001 the treaty was revised (RToC) and Caricom was ambitiously transmuted into a Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME). This included a Court -the CCJ – that was to serve two purposes – firstly be the Court to settle any disputed involving the RToC among Caricom’s members. But secondly and most pertinently it was to serve as a body to replace the Privy Council as the top Appellate Court !!
Sadly as of now, only Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana and St. Lucia have gone this route. The remainder still trust the Privy Council more!! Is it because they believe their local appeal judges are gonna be biased?? Or do they still believe that the British Judges from thousands of miles away can make better decisions?
…on “Birth Tourism”
The US Consulate just issued a “caution” on “Birth Tourism”. Your Eyewitness knew of the practice but didn’t know it had an official name. Guyanese women – along with women across the world – with visas to the US would travel there to deliver their babies. And it had nothing to do with high maternity death rates – it was just another way to secure their future in the US of A. Babies born there would automatically become US citizens – who could sponsor their parents when they reached 21!!
Well, we know that President Trump’s looking to close all avenues for immigrants to enter the US. And this Birth Tourism caution is just another nail in the coffin of the famous message on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
But hold it!! Aren’t we now rich enough to tell the Yanks where they could stick their visas??
…from abuse
They say abused children become abusive parents. Norton was abused by his predecessor Hoyte when the latter dubbed him his “creature” and summarily dismissed him as PNC General Secretary. Didn’t Norton then do the same to Geeta Chandan??
