Who cares more for their citizens - Jamaica or Guyana?

Who cares more for their citizens – Jamaica or Guyana?

Oct 30, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

After Rupert Murdoch was exposed and brought down from his powerful throne by the Guardian (I honestly think it is the world’s best newspaper over and above the New York Times) over the phone-hacking scandal, in one meeting with his staff, he spoke contemptuously of the high-priced lawyers his corporation was paying for the troubles.
Whether Murdoch disliked or hated them, he knew he had to employ them because great lawyers do great things in the courtroom. I came face to face with that inescapable reality when Minister Juan Edghill filed a contempt of court affidavit against me that was worded in such a way that once found guilty there was no provision for reprimand or fine, only a jail term.
I saw in that courtroom how Nigel Hughes and Khemraj Ramjattan literally destroyed the affidavit of Mr. Ashton Chase by informing the judge that the wording itself was bad in law and even the section of the law under which the affidavit was filed was not relevant to what was being asked of the court. A lot of technical arguments ensued and before there could have been any hearing of the case proper, the judge ruled that the affidavit was a technical mistake.
There and then I knew the value of a brilliant lawyer. It is like medicine. If you have the money, pay the best surgeon. In my case, I didn’t have the money so I thanked my lucky stars that I got free services from two of the best legal minds in the Caribbean. Three Saturdays ago, Khemraj Ramjattan explained to me why the Shanique Myrie case reached the Caribbean Court of Justice. There are technical dimensions of law that the layman needs to be familiar with.
According to Khemraj, Shanique Myrie achieved locus standi by the fact that a signatory to the CARICOM Treaty joined the suit, the State of Jamaica. To put it in non-legal terms, Jamaica said that it is backing one of its citizens to sue the Barbadian Government and it jointly put its name on the court paper.
My understanding from Khemraj’s explanation is that Myrie may not have had locus standi in bringing the case by herself.
What Jamaica has done is nothing new in the world, European and American governments do not fool around when their citizens are detained and mistreated in other countries. The extraordinarily admirable thing about the Jamaican decision to sue is that long, long ago if Guyana had done what Jamaica did in 2011, then thousands of decent Guyanese citizens would not have been humiliated in front of their families at airports in Trinidad and Barbados.
This writer says in pellucid language that Guyana is not going to emulate Jamaica. The leadership of the two countries is billions of miles apart when it comes to the practice of nationalism. I find that Jamaicans and French people are intensely passionate about their countries. Jamaicans think that the island is one of the world’s greatest countries. French people think that Paris is the centre of the globe.
Jamaican middle class leadership was probably livid when it heard what happened to Myrie. I could well imagine them saying that there is no way you should treat the land of Bob Marley, Usain Bolt, Courtney Walsh and Chris Gayle like this. From the moment it happened, there was probably talk in Jamaica that the matter should go before the courts.
In Barbados, decent, financially comfortable Guyanese are constantly manhandled and mistreated by “Bajan” immigration and the PPP Government has never said to Barbados, “enough is enough.” And it will go on. The type of rulership we have in Georgetown simply could not be bothered with the immigration depravity that decent Guyanese have to put up with at the Barbados arrival lounge.
The Caribbean citizens must have read about a horrible situation recently in which a Cuban citizen married to a Guyanese and coming here for a family event was harassed in Trinidad and put on a plane back to Cuba, only to be saved by the intervention of other Guyanese. This is nonsense that is sickening and abominable. She wasn’t going to Trinidad. She was on her way to Guyana. It was none of Trinidad’s business as to why she wanted to be in Guyana.
Nothing came of this sordid mess. It will continue in Barbados and Trinidad against bona fide Guyanese travellers. But not to Jamaicans anymore. “Bajan” immigration officers will tread carefully. Who in the Caribbean respects Guyanese leadership?

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Who cares more for their citizens – Jamaica or Guyana?

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