Dear Editor,
Recently, Mr Joseph Harmon, Leader of the main Opposition party, issued a call for the confirmation of the positions of Chief Justice and Chancellor of the Judiciary. Now, this is a very noble position to take, judging from the fact that these ladies – at least one of them – have been acting in that position for some time now and it’s high time that their positions be made substantive. So, as is the case in every decision taken by the Opposition, one is tempted to ask pointed questions such as, why now, what took him near 6 years to come to this enlightened position? The PNC had five years five months in which to make up their mind but did not, so why the frenetic rush to confirm them now? Taking all of the above into consideration, one views this latest proposal with a great degree of suspicion.
For starters, what glorious epiphany came upon him to make that sudden call for their appointments to be made substantive and what took him so long to come to this point? Is this latest call shrouded in mystery? If the answer to the preceding statement is yes, then why this sudden rush of blood by the Opposition Leader to make out a mystery case, interesting? So, to clear up all of these discrepancies, let us do a little background check of the Opposition where judicial appointments are concerned.
I am quoting from a section of the media on February 9, 2018, when then Minister of State Joseph Harmon signalled his intention to make Justice Kenneth Benjamin Chancellor and Justice Yonette Cummings as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Nowhere in that proposal was there mention made of Justice Roxane George, who was and still is, a practicing Judge in our court. This is quite revealing and shocking, to say the least! But such is the duplicitous and diabolical nature of the PNC.
Further, Justice Benjamin was not a practicing Judge in our jurisdiction and one who has a questionable history in the Belizean jurisdiction where he presently serves. So, one can now rightly decipher the code behind Harmon’s decision to appoint the two, while discarding that one Judge, Justice Roxane George. You see, in Harmon’s book, any Judge who can interpret the law to the letter and not deviate into sidebars of illegalities is unfit for office, so, Justice George is automatically categorised as unfit. Well, Harmon has to sanitise his mind where that is concerned, because it is not going to happen. In a modern and civilised world, such notions would not be allowed.
Now, in his latest move, one would have thought that this man is moral in his call for the confirmation of the two Judges, but that is far from it. Harmon is now on a crusade to see if he can in some way influence the Judiciary; he has adopting the sanctimonious gangster approach.
And you do not have to be a rocket scientist to see through this scheming action of his. The petition hearing is soon to commence and that same Judge will be the adjudicator in that matter, so try to persuade her into making a decision in their favour. But like I said in the preceding paragraphs, Harmon will have to carefully rethink that duplicitous move of his. The Judiciary should be separate and independent of political influence and that is how it is going to be, end of discussion!
So, finally, we can all conclude that the PNC is the epitome of hypocrisy and cannot be trusted in Government again.
Respectfully,
Neil Adams
