Such is the way of the world

Mar 23, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Based on the lens you use, you will see the present crisis in different lights. If you use a partisan lens, then the crisis will be viewed merely in terms of whose interests are best served rather than in the sense of justice.
This is why, it is always wise to step back and view things from a different angle. It would then be possible to make a more objective analysis of the situation.
Two important reports were handed in yesterday. One was done in the United States and the other in Guyana. The latter decision involved the decision of the Court of Appeal, which ruled by majority, that 34 votes were needed to pass the no-confidence motion.
Guyana is a most interesting country to live in, politically. Very few people would have expected yet another twist in this ongoing saga of the no confidence motion. But many would have been hoping for the end result.
No matter which lens is used, there would have always been those pleased with the decision, while there would have been others who would not have been pleased. In terms of a legal lens, there will be some who will agree on legal grounds with the decision, and others who will not. In terms of interests, some will see the decision as being in their interest, while others will see it as not being in their interest.
It is possible also to be viewing an issue through the same lens – in the case of the legal lens – and still see things differently. Therefore, it is not only the lens, which shapes one’s perspective.
That is the way the world works. And so it is important for every person to examine the lens through which they view developments in our society. But also to expect that subjective conditions could force a different outlook.
The decision of the Court of Appeal defuses tensions in society. The no confidence motion as presently stands is not valid, until a higher court rules otherwise.
If the higher Court overturns the decision of the Court of Appeal, it will create a greater crisis, since it would have meant that the motion was valid, and that the period by which elections were to be held would have passed. Questions would then again be raised as to the validity of the government. As for now, that issue is temporarily settled.
The decision of the Court of Appeal throws the controversy over the no confidence motion into the hands of the Caribbean Court of Justice, whose decision will be final and binding.
It means that there is no need until that Court rules for any protests. Life can go back to normalcy. If the CCJ overturns the decision, the controversy will be resurrected. But for the time being, the no confidence motion has been invalidated.
This is the way of the world. This is how Bernard De Santos would have wanted things to be settled – in the hallowed chambers of the courtroom rather than in the streets. Miles Fitzpatrick would have seen the opportunity in the Chief Justice’s decision, as he did with the decision in the election petition case of 1997, as another opportunity to ask the court to order power sharing. Both men, eminent lawyers in their own right, would have been seeing a case through the same lens, yet arrived at different perspectives.
Such is the way of the world. As of now, 34 is a majority of 65.

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