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The people I admired in 2010

Jan 06, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I know I am going to get criticized for my first preference. And yes I admit my reason is personal. But there are objective factors also in my choice. I begin with Nigel Hughes. Mr. Hughes and I go way back.
In 1989, he defended me, when as a young UG lecturer, I was charged for allegedly burning tyres in front UG entrance. This was during FITUG’s strike against the 1989 budget. I got off due to his great legal skills.
It is not only for his erudition that I admire him but I believe Mr. Hughes is at heart a committed human rights attorney without whose presence, many would not have obtained justice. For example, he featured in the acquittal of a police dog handler who was charged with a drug offence. It was later learned that the accused was involved in the search of the DPP’s suitcase at the airport.
Mr. Hughes was responsible for me being home for the holidays with my family after Mark Benschop and I were charged for alleged obstruction outside the Le Repentir dumpsite. We went to the Brickdam lock up at 13.00 hours on December 21.
When he came to the station and heard that for a harmless traffic offence we were denied bail, he said that the state wanted to keep us in jail way beyond Christmas. If they used the statutory 72 hours then charge us on December 24, at 15.00 hours, there was no way we could have found a sitting magistrate. It meant the next working day was December 28. From the moment Hughes walked into that station, he knew that a habeas corpus was the only avenue available to Mark Benschop and me.
He filed it, and the Chief Justice agreed to hear him. We were released on bail on December 23. This society owes Nigel Hughes a great debt for his human rights record.
Next is Mark Benschop. Again, I will be ridiculed for this pick because it is no secret that we are friends. But Benschop is a tireless human rights fighter. He takes us back to the seventies and eighties when optimism ruled the waves in Guyana and the Guyanese people were comforted in the assurance that there were brave men and women out there that would stand up for the rights of the Guyanese people.
Benschop, in my view, is a reliable and trustworthy activist because his suffering informs his passion. Having lost five years of his liberty, which destroyed his family, he is committed to change. We can hardly say the same for many around us who proclaim they are fighting for our rights.
Like Hughes and Benchop, readers will scream that I am subjective in the selection of Glenn Lall, the owner of this newspaper. My choice of Lall has absolutely nothing to do with my connection with this newspaper. The fact is Lall has made the Kaieteur News into a fantastic guardian of the right of the citizenry to have the news brought to them as it happened, when it happened even if the discoveries involved the exposing of the most powerful people in the land.
From a humble beginning with a limited objective, as owner of the company, Lall has turned the Kaieteur News into one of this country’s most admired media houses in its history from colonial times to the present. Whatever we know of the insanities and morbidities that dominate the corridors, the Kaieteur News has brought it to us.
I would be ungrateful if I didn’t mention my friend Khemraj Ramjattan. He has been there for me over the years and this year is no different. He came to the rescue again when the President sued me and has given me the solemn promise that he will fight the case right up to the Caribbean Court of Justice.
It is my hope that the AFC wins the elections this year and invite other parties to participate in shared governance.  Two other fine Guyanese citizens had my respect for 2010.
The first one is Christopher Ram. Mr. Ram has emerged as a towering figure in the anti-dictatorship landscape of this country. A brave soul, he is an asset to the opposition parties in the general elections and my wish is that he participates.
Finally, Chief Justice Ian Chang has rekindled hope in the judiciary. The Chief Justice comes across as a person who will not allow the tentacles of the state to strangulate the rule of law.
If the state is right, he will rule in its favour. If it is wrong, he will give justice to the citizenry.

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