There is no justice for the poor and powerless

Jan 25, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Comments like those offered by the Minister of Finance in his 2017 Budget with respect to the progress on the reforms in the judicial system have to be rejected on all fronts since it is constructed in an environment that is confusing. The Minister was quoted as saying “the Government continues to place the highest priority on the maintenance of a strong justice system, given its role in upholding our civil liberties and maintaining the rule of law.” Where is this strong justice system that the Minister is alluding to? Thus my use of the word confusing because such a system does not exist in Guyana, has not for a very long time and the justice system continues to deteriorate under this Granger Government with these public measures of witch-hunt and harassment of the top judicial official by the politicians.
We have a strategic problem in the judicial system, it is a third rate deliverer of justice especially if you are poor and cannot raise “bail money”. The Hon. Minister of Finance in his 2017 Budget introduced a $1.6 billion IDB Project that is aiming to provide:
1. Alternative sentencing interventions.
2. Strengthening of probation services.
3. Design and implementation of restorative justice programme.
4. Implementation of case management and court scheduling system.
5. Training of judges and magistrates in the use of alternatives to pretrial detention.
6. Law reform.
My immediate response this latest act of irrelevance spending is – here we go again. Guyana has spent some G$10 billion by way of foreign donor projects on Justice Sector Reforms and Citizen Security Programs since 2007 and it has mostly come to naught. Guyana is still a crime invested society that has a judicial system that still has thousands of cases in the backlog piles, unresponsive to the needs of the accused and actively violates the human rights of dozens of innocent men and women in a remand system that is totally malfunctional. There is no social justice for the poor and the working class in Guyana; not under Anil Nandlall and now under Basil Williams because of serious legal administrative issues.
Under Anil Nandlall, an Amerindian victim one, Mr. Justin John languished in jail for seven years because the prosecutorial system was unwilling to deliver justice in a timely manner. Today under Basil Williams, it is better with dozens more such active cases leading a President to make decisions with a questionable methodology to release prisoners from an overcrowded prison system. Good try, but there is a better way, put the people in front of judges and magistrates.
It is unfortunate that after all these years, our policy makers do not understand that development is not how much money we spend, but how much of that money actually benefits the intended beneficiary. Where is the change for the poor and the working class that was promised at WHIM in 2015?
It is time for the DPP to bite the bullet and surrender those cases she has inadequate evidence on. As the Officer in Charge of Prosecution in Guyana, she has the mandate to bring speedy closure to those cases she has weak evidence or no evidence for. It is not the remandee’s fault that the investigative skill of most of the members of the Police Force is poor. It is time that we as a society have the courage of conviction to advocate for justice for all regardless of their social status.
The burden of proof is on the prosecution and their slothfulness must not be rewarded by the incarceration of poor people. The prosecutors are tasked with the responsibility to collect and present enough compelling evidence to convince the Judge of the facts. The DPP and the Police and the leaders in the judicial reform process under this Granger government continue to fail the nation by failing to present evidence beyond the reasonable doubt on these cases fast enough and instead they continue to hide behind the bureaucracy. This is wrong and in cases where the DPP has weak evidence, she must throw in the towel and go for an acquittal, rather than have so many young lives tarnished by a crooked and broken judicial system.
It is up to the Independent Media to ask the tough questions of the DPP, Attorney General and the Public Security Minister and the President himself so that this trend of denying justice to the working class reduces. This is not how the poor and the powerless must be treated. It is just plain wrong. How many more poor people, who cannot afford to raise bail, will be forced to languish unjustly in jail for years because the DPP, the Police and those tasked with Judicial Reforms in the Granger government are failing to do the job that they are paid to do?
Sase Singh

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