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The PPP politicized the judiciary into dysfunctionalism
Dear Editor,
Guyana’s Attorney General, Mr. Basil Williams, has forcefully articulated how successive PPP administrations calculatedly politicized Guyana’s judiciary into dysfunctionalism.
Alarmingly, the dysfunctionalism to which he alluded, potentially predeterminedly obstructed the course of justice. These injustices and prejudices constitute consequential violations of citizen’s constitutional rights. I am living testimony of such politically engineered injustice.
I am the plaintiff in Rickford Burke V. Guyana National Newspapers Limited, Kwame McCoy, National Communications Networks Inc, Et, Al: Case No 2013 No. 38/W, Demerara County. This is a libel case in which the defendants, eight media entities and/or practitioners associated with the PPP, maliciously slandered, defamed and libeled me.
My lawsuit has inexplicably been in continuance in the Supreme Court for five years, notwithstanding several letters and submissions to then Chief Justice (Ag) Mr. Ian Chang, from me and my Counsel, Mr. Nigel Hughes, for a trial date.
The matter is in a state of dormancy, for no judicial reason, by “gatekeepers” in the judiciary who have the constitutional obligation to uphold the law and act as fair and dispassionate arbiters of justice.
My case is that between January 29, 2013 and February 1, 2013, and thereafter, the defendants, acting as political agents, knowingly published and/or broadcasted flagrantly false, malicious and defamatory information about me.
Upon the direction of my Counsel, the Guyana Chronicle newspaper and National Communications Network subsequently retracted their false stories and apologized to me. The other defendants refused.
The Chronicle’s retraction and apology were nugatory, as the newspaper refused to remove the article from its website; causing it to be republished by media in the Caribbean region and the United States.
This article, which is globally accessible, remains published on the Chronicle’s website as of today, in defiance of repeated demands from my Counsel for its removal. Moreover, it remains published although a presiding Judge in 2013 inquired of the raison d’etre for its continued publication.
With impunity, Chronicle, backed by the PPP government flaunted the law and demonstrated contempt for the courts.
Its nefarious, malicious, premeditated intent was expressly to slander me, assassinate my character and cause permanent injury to my character and professional reputation, and no lawsuit or court would deter this mission – Its maliciousness evidently inspired by a confidence in its protectors. After all, even the application for an emergency injunction has not yet been heard; five years later.
The publication achieved its intended consequence. I was smeared and defamed. My character and professional reputation suffered irreparable harm. I was forced to defend my good name and reputation as well as correct the record in publications in Guyana, throughout the Caribbean and in the United States.
The retraction and apology by the defendants are an admission of guilt and liability. The defendants’ actions were not only malicious and intractable, but evidently contemptuous of the law. I have been denied my day in court, justice and my constitutional right to judicial remedies.
The practical effect of the unfathomable five-year delay and obstruction of my lawsuit is a perversion of the course of justice and the constitution.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. admonished us that “The Arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.” I have patience of a saint. I await my day in court.
Rickford Burke
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