Why are the Bar Association and society silent on Article 161(2)?

Jan 15, 2017 Features / Columnists, Letters

Dear Editor,
President Ganger said, in reference to the issue surrounding the GECOM list, that he will end breaches in the Constitution. Those “breaches” that took place in the past decades won’t be allowed. This is his explanation for rejecting the list of candidates presented by the PPP. The President maintains that the Constitution states that a judge must fill the position and he intends “as a matter of his responsibility” to honour the Constitution’s provisions. Obeying the constitution is a good thing and the President must be commended for wanting to do exactly that, except I wonder if the President doesn’t realise that the very Constitution he will responsibly honour as Head of State, states in the same article that any “fit and proper person” can be appointed as chairman of GECOM.
I question how the President can say he intends to honour the provision of Constitution and yet he is disregarding another provision, at the same time. Editor, we are not referring to two different Articles in the Constitution, but the very same article that the President wants to obey. Is the president not seeing his own contradiction?
Editor, another pertinent question is why is the rest of society so silent on this very important matter on legal interpretation? Where are all the legal experts? The critics? Where are the Bar Association, Transparency International, the Trade Unions, the Private Sector, Civil Society, even the religious bodies that talk about morals and fairness that ought to prevail in our society? These people were mighty talkative during the PPP tenure and now they are all astoundingly silent. This is an issue they need to speak out on as it affects the future of our society and it is rocking the core principles that supposedly make up this society, and the foundation of our legal system. The Bar Association and legal minds need to come out and say something. They need to explain to the Head of State, without fear or favour, what Article 161(2) means.
Daren Jaipaul

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