Reading a letter from Basil Williams, your Eyewitness’s first reaction was, “He’s so full of sh*t!” But since this is a family newspaper, he figured that “too full of himself” conveyed the same sentiment!!” The letter was about his take on the CCJ’s case, wherein they slapped him at the back of his head and ruled he could be sued in his personal capacity!! But more than his take was his insistence on not only referring to himself in the third person (Mr Basil Williams) but twice as “APNU+AFC’s Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, SC”!! The moustachioed one exemplifies the word “pompous”!!
He was objecting to the headline in one of the dailies that announced, “Basil Williams loses appeal to be struck out in libel suit by Prithima Kissoon”!! Since he couldn’t very well object to the fact that he did lose his appeal to the CCJ in the case by the one-time Dep Solicitor General whom he fired, it would appear he was objecting to the tabloid not placing the suffix “SC” behind his name!! But we all know how he got that appellation, don’t we?? The decision by David Granger – as President – to confer him with silk ahead of so many illustrious colleagues at the bar could be rated as only slightly less fatal than the decision to go along with the rigging attempt post March 2, 2020!!
Who in his right mind would elevate the losingest Attorney General in the history of Guyana to the ranks of “Senior Counsel” – which was formerly “Queen’s Counsel”?? In one stroke, he devalued the worth of the honorific – and your Eyewitness half expected some previous awardees to hand in their silk. But Williams was so petty he dared to call out a practising lawyer, Hughes – who’s light years ahead of him professionally and otherwise – to emphasise that the latter wasn’t an SC!! The poor slob didn’t realise how he suffered by comparison!!
But back to the letter. Apart from not conceding that once again he’d come out at the losing end of yet another case, he actually announced, “What the media saw as a loss was actually a major victory”!! And how’d he arrive at this conclusion – which appears to suggest he’d been smoking something quite stronger than your Eyewitness’s favourite “Jamaican Gold”?? The “victory” he was talking about was the CCJ’s reaffirmation of our local courts’ decision that Ministers and Attorney Generals can be sued in their personal capacities. So, if we’re to take him at his word, he took his claim that he couldn’t be sued in his personal capacity all the way to the CCJ because he wanted to REAFFIRM this principle??!!
What a douche!!
…of power obsession
With the PNC Opposition excoriating the incumbent PPP Government for all manner of sins, your Eyewitness is reminded of Walter Rodney’s analysis of the dictator Burnham – who had him murdered. In terms of “racism”, this is what Walter said: “We should refer to the pamphlet by Jessie Burnham (Burnham’s sister), entitled Beware My Brother Forbes, in which she described his racist attitude to Indians, his absolute selfishness, and his limitless ambition to hold others in domination. Jessie Burnham also provided evidence as to the stealthy manner in which Forbes Burnham went about his objectives.”
On the accusation of political incest, here is Rodney’s take on Burnham: “For a small nation, Guyana has produced a discouragingly large number of lackeys and stooges who hide in the shadow of the “Comrade Leader”. Guyanese constantly complain of “square pegs in round holes.” The square pegs are the misfits and soup drinkers who flourish because each one is prepared to be his master’s voice.”
And Guyana was destroyed!!
