Guyanese must find ways to correct the current illegalities of govt.

Oct 24, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
In Kaieteur News’ October 14 news article, “NICIL operating in violation of the law for several years,” PNCR Member of Parliament and presidential hopeful, Mr. Winston Murray, said the clear illegality involving NICIL’s manner of operating ‘has to be dealt with at the polls’.
I spent some time pondering this remark and concluded that, as a politician, either he is making a downright admission that no corrective or punitive action can be taken in the interim, or that the government is so deeply mired in corruption that it is better to wait out the government’s term in office and make a thorough overhauling of the entire system.
But as a lawyer, how can his position not be seen as justice delayed being justice denied? Usually when an illegality is detected, either punitive or corrective action is taken immediately, or else any deliberate delay is construed as a denial of the right to due process.
So why does Mr. Murray’s statement appear to treat NICIL’s illegality as a political error that should be taken care of politically at the polls? What if, for any combination of reasons, the PPP retains power after 2011? In fact, what would Mr. Murray do if the President/PPP decides to offer the PNCR shared governance in 2011 and the PNCR Leader accepts?
Look, the fact that NICIL is breaking the law means that justice should be swiftly applied to ensure both punitive and corrective action. To wait until 2011 to vote the PPP out of office amounts to wishful thinking and delaying the execution of justice against NICIL.
Secondly, speaking specifically on reports that NICIL is in possession of hundreds of millions of dollars, which should be transferred to the Consolidated Fund, Mr. Murray reportedly said that ‘any concerned citizen who benefits from the nation’s coffers has a standing in the matter and could file court action against NICIL seeking to have them conform to the laws of Guyana and place the money into the Consolidated Fund’.
Wait a minute, isn’t Mr. Murray, who gets paid from public funds as a Member of Parliament, a ‘concerned citizen’ who has the same right to file court action against NICIL, seeking to have it conform to the law by placing monies it received into the Consolidated Fund?
As a wannabe leader of Guyana, this is his best opportunity to prove his leadership capacity and get between 50,000 and 100,000 signatures demanding transparency and an end to corruption in government. Make a strong political statement as he leads this fight in court.
And even if Guyanese may not be successful in a court fight in Guyana , because of a badly broken justice system, what are the chances for recourse to swift justice for Guyanese against their erring government via to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)?
I am not too conversant with the procedures for seeking justice through the CCJ, but with the Jagdeo Government picking and choosing which laws to obey and ignore, I would like to think Guyanese at least have a legal option available outside of Guyana in seeking justice against their government.
Mr. Editor, apart from the legal option in or out of Guyana, the only other viable option left is for Guyanese to stage mass protests against this criminally corrupt government. Let the Caribbean and the world know that this government is so corrupt that it has lost its moral or legal right to govern, even though it may have been freely elected in 2006.
The Jagdeo regime’s behaviour today regarding the rule of law seems to be confirming exactly what the so-called Freedom Fighters have been charging all along: it discriminates and marginalises. Worse, its blasé attitude upon being repeatedly exposed conveys the impression that it does not care if people know and talk about it!
Yes, I am saying it: The so-called Freedom Fighter’s message was spot on; however, their method in dealing with the realities was off mark, because innocents in society were not responsible for what government was doing.
By the way, the fact that the government turned outside the ambit of the law to confront these criminal elements, not only exposed the criminally corrupt nature of the government, for it is the same government that is now disregarding the laws with impunity and firing people for failing lie detector tests.
To me, government seems concerned only about the threat of criminal elements to its hold on power, but not the threat of corrupt criminal elements in government to the subversion of the justice system.
In closing, Mr. Murray is right ‘that the government must be made to account for its many errors over the years’, but not at the 2011 polls, because this is more than enough time for corrupt elements in the government to ramp up their illegal activities and leave the treasury bare.
We – and by we, I mean Mr. Murray and all Guyanese at home and abroad – must explore our options now to make this government accountable and transparent, and since the DPP, police and court seem to lack genuine reform and true independence, I am asking whether the CCJ is not a viable go-to option at this point.
I doubt whether we can count on CARICOM governments for help in reining in the region’s most corrupt regime, because they are accommodatingly silent now as they were during the election-rigging, authoritarian days of the Forbes Burnham regime and are openly sympathetic to the Cuban dictatorship.
We either find formidable help now or Guyana could face a return to the days of people fighting for their rights and freedom against a selfish, corrupt, inept and dictatorial regime.
Emile Mervin

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