Deborah Backer, 14th April 1959 - 21st March 2014

Deborah Backer, 14th April 1959 – 21st March 2014

Mar 30, 2014 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

Deborah Jan Osman-Backer, Attorney-at-Law, former Deputy Speaker and Member of the National Assembly, died on Friday 21st March 2014, aged 54.
Deborah Backer, most likely, came the closest to being appointed the first woman Senior Counsel and the first woman Speaker of the National Assembly. She graduated from the University of the West Indies and Hugh Wooding Law School in 1983 along with Justice Carl Singh, the current Chancellor of the Judiciary, and others. She accumulated enormous experience as an

Deborah Backer

attorney-at-law for over 30 years, not as a money-grubber but doing much, quiet ‘pro-bono’ work for vulnerable women and children and victims of injustice.
Deborah Backer, a woman of slight stature, might have seemed to be a physical ‘Bantamweight’ but, in reality, she punched in the legal ‘Welterweight’ class. She, along with Justice Desiree Bernard who was then a Puisne Judge and other female attorneys-at-law – Sheila Chapman, Elvy Edwards, Carole James-Boston, Pearlene Roach, Birnie Stephenson and Josephine Whitehead – founded the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers in April 1987. Its mission then was to provide legal advice and assistance to women in the society and promote women’s rights and issues, especially as they pertain to property rights and violence against women.
She was also a founding member of the board of directors of the Linden Legal Aid Centre which was established in April 2009 to support abused and exploited children in that town. The Centre aimed at providing legal representation and assistance to women and children who were victims of domestic and sexual violence. It provided legal advice and representation in civil matters and in criminal cases where adequate legal representation would make a material difference to the prospect of an accused person receiving a fair trial.
Her attendance on Conflict Analysis and Resolution and Mediator Skills Training courses introduced her to the practice of alternative dispute resolution, modified the adversarial approach to advocacy and successfully shifted numerous cases from fierce litigation in the courtroom to measured mediation. She came to be recognized as one of the most successful mediators in the country.
Deborah Backer, the third daughter of Sheik Mohamed Osman from Albouystown and his wife Barbara, née Owen – from Kingston – sensed the significance of miscegenation and socialisation in colonial Georgetown’s geography. The two wards, located at opposite ends of the city, were regarded at the time of her birth, as the domiciles of different classes. She was also [in the inelegant Jamaican creole expression] her mother’s ‘wash-belly’ – the last child who was usually the object of special maternal affection. She saw these circumstances of her birth and upbringing as assets which gave her the best of all worlds. She saw fusion where others might see confusion. She was very comfortable in her skin.
Backer’s life was steeped in the values of her mother’s family which was well established over a century and a quarter ago. She was the great grandchild of William Owen, a schoolmaster. She was the grandchild of the John Edward Owen from Stewartville Village in West Coast Demerara who himself was headteacher of St Stephen’s Scots School, county inspector of schools and an ordained elder of the Scots Church.
Deborah Backer’s values rested on the secure foundation of the home, school and church. Her closest relatives worked mainly in the public service, regarded as a respectable but not rich vocation. The Bishops’ High School (BHS) was considered the best girls’ school of the day. Her septennium at BHS – which her mother and sisters attended before and where her own children would follow afterwards – and her worship at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Kirk were like a family affair, mere facets of one world view.
Backer’s weltanschauung, therefore, was influenced by these conditions and circumstances – her family lineage; her residence in Kingston; her attendance at the Bishops’ High School and her worship in the Presbyterian Church. These were the verities and values she took into her personal life. She evinced a similar outlook in her professional and public life. Her leadership in the Guyana Society for the Blind, the International Association of Lions Clubs, were expressions of the value she placed on humanity.
Deborah Backer’s political service was not coloured by any conventional dogma or ideological doctrine. It was a continuation of her culture by other means. She entered politics as a member of the People’s National Congress and became a councillor in the Georgetown City Council after winning a seat in the 1994 municipal elections.
She entered national politics and became a member of the National Assembly after winning a seat in the 1997 general and regional elections. She remained a member through the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th Parliaments until her resignation in February 2014. An articulate debater, she served on several parliamentary committees and was elected Deputy Speaker in January 2012. Her sponsorship of the Married Persons’ (Property) (Amendment) Bill and motions on Interpersonal Violence and Law Reform in the National Assembly are more evidence of her humane outlook on life.
Deborah Jan Osman-Backer was married to Stephen Backer and the union bore two children, Nigel and Natasha. She died on Friday 21st March 2014 after a long illness. Her husband and children survive her.