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Karma has a way of biting back!
DEAR EDITOR,
Recent disclosure by Director General Harmon that on the advice of the Attorney General (Basil Williams) the president and the Cabinet will not resign was not surprising to the populace. What was surprising is the way Harmon mentioned the portfolio and name of the AG who advised the president and Cabinet not to resign. Since the Advent of the Coalition government the president had received and acted on controversial advice from the AG, some of which the president had been cited for by the courts. Never before had the name and portfolio of whom the president was receiving his legal advice from mentioned in this manner. The AG, having accrued a track record of controversy in his advice to the president is now being used as a scapegoat.
The AG rise to fame or shame started early in the advent of the Coalition. It started when someone in the hierarchy of the party or government wanted to deprive a few Berbice farmers of their lands. Upon the advice of the AG the president was tasked to do the dirty job of revoking the farmers’ leases. The farmers took the matter to court and won. It was an embarrassing moment for the president; many more followed and it seemed like the president became immune to embarrassment. Any president, mindful of his pride and dignity, would have gotten rid of his AG for putting him up for such disgrace in the first instant. That did not happen. While the president is known for idolising the founder leader and former president Burnham, Burnham would have never tolerated being publicly disgraced by his legal advisor. The president’s failure to set the bar high for himself from that pivotal moment made him appear like a puppet to his ministers from then on. It didn’t seem to bother him when he was reduced to being a ceremonial president when he took himself or was taken by Cabinet out of the limelight by reducing his press appearances.
The road to the NCM saw the president continuously losing the respect of the masses, being cited for a number of constitutional violations, including the unilateral appointment of GECOM chair, upon the advice of his AG.
The president, having initially accepted the NCM, saying, “We will abide by the Constitution”, the day after the NCM had a change of heart days after. This sudden change has led conspiracy theorists into believing that someone made a call to the president to hang on to power at all costs. It is believed that the Coalition’s top brass were called in to plot the defence. Nigel’s one half plus one was just a” means to an end”.
At this point, the president had to burst out of his cocoon and try to be autocratic and presidential at the same time. The job at hand (defending the government’s delaying tactics) had required an individual with a proven track record – the ability to complicate and distort the Constitution. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, the AG had the flair for the job.
There is an old adage, “Never get rid of a dose of poison, the hour cometh when you may need it”! Despite those dark hours of embarrassment, none seemed to have caused the president to show any signs of flexing a muscle. The president may have finally found some solace in retaining his AG.
With the NCM matters and the unilateral appointment of GECOM Chairman having been thrown out by the CCJ, the president now find it expedient to let it be known who exactly is advising the Coalition on its desecration of the CCJ consequential orders. The president found a way to turn the tables on his AG. Karma has a way of biting back!
Rudolph Singh
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