…against Jagdeo
The PNC-led coalition Government didn’t need the PPP to hold a Congress, or elections for the Central Committee, or for the General Secretary of the party that Bharat Jagdeo would emerge as the leader of the PPP by being the Opposition Leader and its General Secretary. The moment they filed their appeal in July 2015 to the “third term” ruling of Justice Ian Chang, the cat was out of the bag. They were running scared Jagdeo would run again!
But they didn’t need political geniuses to figure that out. Why would the PPP overlook a man who already had 12 years under his belt as President of the country; is a trained economist who was able to generate impressive growth rates when the rest of Caricom languished in the doldrums, and most importantly was able to take on and defeat an armed insurrection against the State – and was still only 52 years old?? They’d had to have a death wish!!
So now the PPP’s officially conferred on Jagdeo the authority to lead it into the 21st Century, we return to the PNC’s fears! Simultaneously, (coincidentally?) we get news that the appeal filed by now AG Williams and Trotman is going to be heard by the Court of Appeal starting this Friday. And as the plot thickens, we discern the hand of the PNC rising out of the fog.
The Court of Appeal, after all, is comprised of the Chancellor, the Chief Justice and one or more other Appellate judges. Now, do you still think your Eyewitness was paranoid when last week he questioned the two-step tango played by a letter writer Edwards and the Chronic? First, Edwards informed the nation that the Chancellor reaches retirement age at the end of February and since he has three weeks leave outstanding, he should proceed on “pre-retirement leave” at the end of this month!!
That’s right! And if you think this revelation came “out of the blue” then it REALLY was Santa who was kissing Mommy under the Christmas tree!! Then Edwards, made his main point – “…no Judge soon to vacate his office ought to commence hearing a new or fresh case, for in all probability it would be a part-heard case when he/she vacates office.” The Chronic then piggybacked on this to posit that “concerns” were raised about the Chancellor’s “impending” retirement and he shouldn’t take “new cases”!!
All of this simply means the PNC wants to ensure the Appellate Court rules against a “third term” – and don’t trust the incumbent Chancellor to go along.
But what does this say about their assessment of the new Chief Justice, who was just given silk?
…on silk
The PNC’s ploy on the Chief Justice – for which they had to take a lot of flak from the legal community on awarding silk to a sitting judge – might now be understood, but it evokes some sad memories from the first PNC regime. The present generation mightn’t remember when the PNC moved a case against a PPP activist from Berbice for a crime allegedly committed in Berbice to Georgetown to be tried by “a jury of his peers”!! It was one of Rodney’s finest moment when he asked what this implied about the PNC’s assessment of “African Guyanese”.
But the silk award raised several other nettlesome issues. One lawyer trotted out his credentials in the press and brought to the fore the question of what criteria was used to make the selection. Another suggested that the title of “Senior Counsel” might now be passé in our Republic – in setting up invidious distinctions.
But your Eyewitness is worried that addressing all and sundry as “Comrade” might be the next step!
…on vendors?
Since the vendors were allowed to return to the Stabroek Market environs, was the expulsion more tactical than strategic?
And what about all those pious platitudes uttered at the time of expulsion by the Town Clerk about “restoring Georgetown’s beauty”?