Killing voices against corruption

Jun 24, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,

I was utterly flabbergasted when I read that the Finance Minister is now suing Member of Parliament Juan Edghill claiming damages in the sum of $200,000,000; for the “Malicious Prosecution of the Offence of Misconduct in Public Office” and other damages.
Jordan, in his application to the court, stated the private criminal charges filed by the Opposition Parliamentarian were intended to ‘embarrass, humiliate, and cause him to suffer public odium and contempt’. If this is the case then we can also argue and reasonably conclude that the charges against Dr. Ashni Singh and Mr. Brassington are also meant to ‘embarrass, humiliate’ and cause them to suffer ’public odium and contempt’. This must be so concluded since the sale of the land and properties were duly authorized by Cabinet in the same manner in which Jordan claimed that the payment of $906 to Homestretch Development Incorporated was approved by the National Assembly.
Similarly ‘no reasonable person can conclude or even draw an inference’ that Dr. Singh and Mr. Brassington are guilty of the offence of ‘misconduct in public office’. Mr. Jordan should however know that it is for the Courts to conclude on guilt, but while the DPP has allowed the justice system to act, in the case of the former, the DPP has, in Jordan’s case, cited that complaints should have been made to the Police.
Having said that I wish to inform Mr. Jordan that he holds a public office and he should expect that he will be subjected to vigorous public scrutiny at all times. In this case, Mr. Edghill, as a Member of Parliament, has the right to demand that transactions which are questionable are brought to the public domain. In the D’Urban Park Project there is a complete lack of data on how the monies were spent and records are not available. On May 22nd this year it was reported that the Office of the Auditor General is probing deeper into the Project and that ‘several questions still linger’ even though some records were submitted by the MoPI. Moreover, there were no budgetary allocations in either the 2015 or the 2016 Budget and despite complaints by the Opposition to the Public Procurement Commission nothing was done. The Minister of Public Infrastructure was simply instructed by the President to take over the Project. So let the ‘reasonable man’ decide whether or not the private criminal charges brought by Mr. Edghill were justified or not. The public needed answers and Mr. Edghill attempted to provide those answers by using the only recourse he has-our legal system!
It is a shame that this Coalition Government instead of providing answers to corruption charges would seek to clamp down, stifle and kill those voices which agonizingly cry against the myriads of corrupt practices being perpetrated against this Nation in just three years!
Your sincerely,

Haseef Yusuf
RDC Councilor Region 6

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