Dear Editor,
Is it funny or a plain case of being rebellious? Who knows? It could be ignorance. But to read in the press that “Suspended Police Service Commission (PSC) Chairman Paul Slowe, on Monday, defied his suspension by Head of State Dr Irfaan Ali, and wrote acting Police Commissioner Nigel Hoppie, attempting to instruct him to act on the Police promotion list that the PSC had sent out.” I mean nothing is a surprising act these days. All that one has to do is to go back and visit the No-Confidence Motion of December 2018, upon which A Partnership For National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) attempted to argue that the majority of 65 is not 33 but 32 and a half plus one, and so rounded off, it becomes 34. It was comical. Now another example of the “unbelievable” has surfaced.
Slowe, suspended for alleged egregious sexual and financial misdemeanours, is now trying to “bully” his way into an area from which he has been legally ejected. The “suspended” Slowe, in a letter to the Police Commissioner, is urging him “…to prepare a Special Promotion Order that would inform the officers who are in line for promotion.” So adamant, yet foolish is Slowe, that he “…reminded Hoppie that his office was sent the list of officers to be promoted on June 28, 2021, and moreover, his office acknowledged receiving the promotion list two days later.” In other words, Slowe is attempting to tell Hoppie that he is acting in a manner that is considered “insubordinate” as well as dilatory.
This character is not accepting reality. The bottom line is that “President Ali issued an order suspending the PSC on June 16, using his powers under Article 225 of the Constitution of Guyana.” This closes the issue, and unless and until this is rescinded, revoked, set-aside or reversed by the President himself, or by a court of competent jurisdiction, that is the end of the issue. So far, Slowe is yet to challenge the President’s order in court, yet in his letter, he is asking Hoppie to act at his behest. The overarching principle in this is that in Guyana, “The Rule of Law simply does not permit it,” so “No person, let alone, a constitutional commission will be allowed to become judge, jury and executioner in Guyana’s constitutional democracy.”
Yours truly,
Attiya Baksh
