I have “protected” former Chancellor Carl Singh all these years

Apr 01, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

You put a footnote at the end of a column. In this case, I am breaking with tradition. This footnote doesn’t concern the main content of this article which is about the former Chancellor, Carl Singh. It is about blackouts. I started this article here at 1.30 pm on Thursday. I reached the second paragraph when blackouts came. On Friday morning, after jogging, I came home at 8.30 am to resume this column. As my hand touched the keyboard, blackouts came. This piece here was typed at 9 am Friday morning at Kaieteur News. This is my life in Guyana. Sorry for the long footnote. Now for the main content of the column.
There is the inherent danger of friendship between political activists and judges. For this reason, all these decades when former Chancellor, Carl Singh sat in the judiciary, first as a High Court judge, then Chief Justice, then Chancellor, I never wrote one word, much less a line, not even a paragraph to indicate that we are good friends. He has retired and I can take the liberty of saying that we have always been good friends.
The danger lies on the part of the judge, not the political activist. His fellow judges and the power establishment can say that he has political sympathies, because look how close he is to one of the country’s known radicals. It could affect the way the political establishment sees him. If he is a friend of mine, then he may be partial to me or my comrades if and when they appear in front of him.
It could affect promotion by the Judicial Service Commission. That body may feel a judge with such close connections to anti-establishment personalities could do damage to the image of the judiciary. But there are other dimensions. The judges’ colleagues on the bench could be hostile or sympathetic. Given the wide implications of a judge being a close friend of a political activist, I chose not to even mention a word for these decades I have been a columnist.
I never appeared in front of Carl when he was a High Court judge or Chief Justice or Chancellor. None of my friends did. I went in front of him when he was part of a three-judge panel in the Court of Appeal. I had taken the university to court for not bringing the law applicants to the full board of the Faculty of Social Sciences. I won that decision in front of Justice Winston Moore, but for some inscrutable reason he awarded cost against me. I appealed. When the matter came up, the respondent had died, that is former head of the UG law department, Calvin Eversley.
Carl and I entered UG at the same time to read for a degree in history. For the four years we were at UG, we attended the same courses and became very close. I will always remember Carl’s generosity. In those days, the State ran a special bus service to UG and for those four years that I was at UG, Carl bought my bus tickets on countless occasions to help me out. We have remained on very good terms since.
One of my best memories of Carl on the campus was when we attended the first class for West Indian history. I recall the image of the lecturer as I type here. He was tall of mixed race – Indian and African – and named Moore, with a doctorate in the subject. After saying good afternoon, he informed us that he doesn’t give ‘A’ grades. He said he came from a humble background where he had to fight for what he got and therefore people must not expect any generosity from him. He ended by saying he is going to be a hard marker. Carl and I led the way in denouncing him. We asked the Vice Chancellor to remove him and that was done. I think Moore left UG shortly after.
For all the years Carl and I have been friends, we never discussed my activism. He never talked about the politics of the government or the opposition, be it PPP or PNC. For all the years I have known him I have only asked for one favour, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the law. I was writing a book on Guyanese politics and I raised the question of him playing a part in financing the venture, since as a columnist it would be unprincipled to approach business people. I guess now that he is retired, he may write his book.

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