And the ‘Person of the Year’ for 2017 is…

Dec 31, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Each year this column selects someone whom it feels has made the most significant contribution to national life – the person need not have made consistent contributions over the foregoing twelve months. A singular act which has a major impact can suffice to have someone designated as ‘Person of the Year’.

2017 will be remembered as a year when old fears returned. People are becoming frightened of standing-up for their rights in the face of a government which is acquiring a fearsome reputation for wanting to have its own way at all times, and of punishing persons who are opposed to it. It is in times like these that a country needs brave and fearless persons.

It is in this context that four persons stood out among the lot. The first of these is the publisher of this newspaper Mr. Glenn Lall. He has won this column’s ‘Person of the Year’ award the most times because of his generosity and his consistency in standing up against official wrongdoing.

Kaieteur News, his newspaper, has become the watchdog of the nation. It has refused to be silenced. It has spoken up consistently against wrongdoing on all sides of the political fence. Glenn Lall has clearly been the inspiration behind this newspaper’s defense of justice.

Kaieteur News has continued in 2017 to speak out against executive and private lawlessness. It exposed the record of the one of the major companies which is doing business in Guyana, in the same way that it spoke out against similar companies in the past. It has also exposed corruption in public life. For these acts, Kaieteur News was victimised.

The second candidate for ‘Person of the Year’ was Chief Justice (ag.) Roxane George. She delivered some outstanding judgments this past year. She has upheld the right to private property in at least two of her decisions. In so doing, she prevented the state from usurping private property. Her ruling in the constitutional case concerning the criteria for the position of the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission is a landmark decision. She has restored confidence in the quality of Guyana’s jurisprudence. She probably would have copped the person of the year award had it not been for the third and fourth candidates.

The third candidate is chartered accountant Christopher Ram. He has emerged as the country’s foremost defender against the evils of corruption and secrecy. Ram has etched his name in Guyana’s history books by his exposure of the signing bonus received by the government which it intended to keep secret. The government even went as far as denying that it had received a signing bonus. Ram exposed the government’s skullduggery. He came in a very close second for Person of the Year for 2017.

The Peeping Tom’s choice for ‘Person of the Year’, however, must go to a man who has demonstrated the powerful role which ordinary citizens can play in society and make a difference. They can force the mighty and powerful to retreat from entrenched and unlawful positions.

This man approached the court for certain declarations relating to the controversy over the rejection of the first two lists submitted by the Leader of the Opposition from which the President was required to choose a Chairperson of GECOM.

After the President rejected the first two lists, this civil society activist approached the court asking for declaration as to whether the list must include a judge, a former judge or someone qualified to be a judge; whether the President is required to give reasons for rejecting each of the six names as unacceptable; whether the President is obliged to select a person from the six names, unless he has determine that none are fit and proper; and whether the finding that one or more of the persons on the list are not fit and proper renders the entire list as unacceptable.

Marcel Gaskin sought declarations from the Court on these questions. Though, the declarations which were made by the Court did not prevent the President from arbitrarily appointing a Chairman from outside of the list, which many suspected was the original intention all along, the approach to the courts by Gaskin showed that citizens can play a role in helping to resolve political controversies. His actions also led to increased confidence in the judiciary as the ultimate arbiter of constitutional questions.

For his role in reminding this nation that the Constitution is supreme and that the court is its guardian, and for demonstrating the part that citizens can play in upholding the rule of law in a society in which the government is hell-bent on having its own way, this column names Marcel Gaskin as Guyana’s ‘Person of the Year’ for 2017.

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