Justice Claudette Singh’s behaviour justifies harsh criticism

Aug 27, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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People don’t like criticism – it is a permanent fixture in Homo sapiens. But criticism has saved civilization from tyranny and disasters. If the human mind gives up on criticism, civilization dies. I believe Trump will lose power in the next presidential race, because the power of criticism has exposed Trump as a man unfit to lead one of the most important countries in the world.
Given her behaviour as the GECOM chairman the past three weeks, harsh condemnations of Justice Claudette Singh’s action are justified within the context of what she said on attaining the position of GECOM chairperson. She said with pellucid assertiveness and unambiguous grammar, that she intends to adhere to the law. She has not, and she must be chastised for this insensitivity, and this is using a light word.
The lower court and the higher court ruled that a legal no-confidence motion (NCM) was carried and there should be elections in three months’ time. Which constitution is Justice Singh reading if she is reading the Guyana constitution at all? Has she read the judgement of the CCJ? Let’s skip over to the land of Brexit – the UK.
Right now parliamentarians from the three major parties are examining a proposal from the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbin, that parliament can topple Prime Minister Boris Johnson through an NCM introduced by Corbin, thereby saving the UK from a no-deal Brexit. Perhaps only in Guyana an NCM has no constitutional consequences.
When the Ramotar presidency prevented an NCM by proroguing parliament in 2014, the PNC under David Granger held a picket exercise every Tuesday outside the Office of the President calling for the parliament to convene. I remember at one of the demonstrations, Granger came up and thanked me for my participation. What Ramotar did was politically reprehensible, morally repugnant and democratically unacceptable.
Granger has emulated Ramotar. An NCM was passed in December 2018, and there is still no election. Granger and his Cabinet remain in office and perform the functions of state as if there was no NCM. In Guyana, citizens must ask themselves, if Boris Johnson can be toppled by a Corbin-sponsored NCM, because from how Guyana is reacting to its NCM it seems that NCMs are a waste of time. Enter the Honourable Claudette Singh.
It appears it will have to take the minds of all the great philosophers to understand the legal mind of Justice Singh. The Chief Justice (CJ) clearly laid-down an order that GECOM cannot remove extant names on the current list of voters after the new registration is completed. This renders the house-to-house registration irrelevant. But Justice Singh does not have to scrap the house-to-house process. What she has to do and what Guyanese must demand she does, is make decisions.
There are two decisions facing Justice Singh today. If today’s GECOM meeting ends in failure again, then there should be calls for her resignation, and I will make such an advocacy.
First, she can vote for the continuation of the current registration process, and that puts elections way into the end of the year or at the beginning of the new year. Whether we like it or not, GECOM is a constitutional body, and Guyanese have to abide by the way the voting went.
Alternatively, she can argue that since the CJ had ordered that over-18 citizens cannot be removed from the existing database, then, she should vote to have GECOM use the old database with additions and subtractions, and let GECOM prepare for an election this year. There is nothing complex about these two situations facing Justice Singh.
Why she has not proceeded to vote for one of the two options is completely unacceptable in the context of three things – one is that an NCM has taken place since December 2018; the second one is that even if she was out of Guyana, she must have read what the CJ said and the CJ said it clearly – GECOM must know it is not operating in normal circumstances and thirdly; her own words that as GECOM chairperson, she will follow the law.
Today we will know what substance Justice Singh is made of. Many Guyanese writing about her strange attitude have reminded us that she vitiated an entire general election in Guyana. This very lady declared a national election null and void. This same lady seems to be uncertain about what the constitution says about a no-confidence vote. Let Granger and his cabinet stay in power. The constitutional grey areas allow for this.
There is not even a patch of grey area about what should happen after an NCM is passed. Do your duty Justice Singh or resign.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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