Ask Chancellor Carl Singh; ask Attorney Gino Persaud too

May 22, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Do I have any sympathy with the plight of the current graduates in law whose future as lawyers is uncertain because Hugh Wooding Law School is telling them that there is no guarantee that they will be admitted to the institution?
The answer is yes but there is a big BUT.
One hopes that these students are allowed into Hugh Wooding so that they can have a future in a profession that they love. But is it not possible that these students are directing their anger to the wrong people, there is a touch of hypocrisy about them. Do law students at UG come from a tradition of hypocrisy?
First, these students ought to know that the world has always been a cruel place and though the great philosopher, Immanuel Kant, said that moral obligation among states is the safest guarantee against war, the harsh reality is that countries do not practise such obligation in international relations.
The Council of Legal Education does not see itself as having a moral obligation to Guyanese law students. We in Guyana cannot force them to, because they have an argument grounded in reality.
The Council said that the students from the University of the West Indian have the first preference. If those preferences are overwhelming, then the Guyanese batch will lose their 25 guaranteed places to the UWI students. Why should 25 UWI students lose their place to their Guyanese counterparts if the applications from UWI students are mountainous?
Because UWI-based countries contribute to the Council, Guyana does not and Guyana does not make a financial stipend to the upkeep of UWI.
Secondly, Guyana was guaranteed those twenty-five places when it was a financial contributor to the Council, it withdrew that assistance. The law students at the time knew that was disaster in the making but what did they do? They allowed that self-destructive policy to go through. There was no protest, no demonstrations, no sit-in, and no boycott of the UG law programme.
This brings us to the third point – law students’ hypocrisy takes two forms, one historical, the other current. Let’s deal with the current one first.
Why is there no demand to reinstate Guyana’s financial contribution to the Council? Roger Luncheon was the chief spokesperson defending the withdrawal. I saw him on television insisting that Guyana cannot afford to continue its subsidy to the Council. These depressed law students need to picket Luncheon. But will they? This brings us to the historical angle of this hypocrisy.
I taught at UG for twenty-six years and in that period, the most apathetic set of students came from the law department. With the exception of Gino Persaud who is now with the law firm of Fitzpatrick and DeCaires, they never participated in any picket or protest. Gino was in the front row as UG students took to the streets in 1995. In that same year, I sought an injunction stopping UG from admitting law students until all applicants come before the Social Sciences Board, and this was after a parent came to me.
Not one UG law student came to hear the case. Not one law student showed any interest. That law student never sent a thank you note.
As recent as 2012 when the campus faced two weeks of staff and student protests even Forestry majors joined us. When the protestors marched into the law building, the law students were angry with us. You would think that these people who will practice law which has as its core the essence of justice, would be in the lead.
Below is an example that future law students at UG need to remember because it involves the present head of the judiciary, Chancellor Carl Singh.
On the first day of our class in West Indian history, this tall lecturer, Dr. Brian Moore, let us know bluntly that he is a hard marker and that we must not expect good grades. He went on to explain that he came from a background of economic denial and people must work their way up.
This man was way out of line. You cannot tell students you don’t give good grades. The class was in an uproar. A group of us led the fight to kick him out and a young student named Carl Singh was in the forefront. We didn’t get to run him out of UG but he was immediately moved from teaching West Indian history.
So what is my point? I am simply saying that UG students cannot complain when UG and the Government of Guyana endanger their career and they stood silent year after year and wallow in their self-destruction. Anger must now be directed at the Guyana Government in not funding a Guyanese law school.

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