AG crying crocodile tears

Aug 11, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Guyana’s Attorney General (AG) is a study in contrasts. The sympathetic area in us observes a luminous officer of the law and this land making heavy weather of his duty by crying out about how rough the Government has it (“Everyday the govt. is being sued’– Nandlall says as House approves $100M to help fight lawsuits against the State” -KN August 9).

We feel for the AG as he mentions how the courts are being bombarded with one challenge after another, some from years ago, from failed work of the prior APNU+AFC Coalition Government. In the next breath, we wonder if the AG is not engaged in one of his award-winning acting performances and shedding the equivalent of crocodile tears. Those tears are thin, and they leave a long streak of suspicious material in their wake.

We do recall that it is his own government, which has relished using lawsuits as a nuclear option to menace citizens from revealing truths about costly State projects that went bad, that failed to deliver, and that reeked of corruption and cronyism. Leaders in the government, and a few of its people, enjoyed themselves with the byproducts of lawsuits from citizens from different walks of Guyanese life. Thus, it is baffling that the nation’s chief legal marshal and constitutionally empowered town tamer is complaining when other citizens follow suit by taking a leaf out of the book used by people in the PPP/C Government. Why, the Government has even allowed ExxonMobil to join hands with it to fight off a court challenge by an ordinary citizen on taxes that should be paid.

Honest Guyanese, who pay their fair share of taxes, whether as businesses or individuals, must be asking themselves how is it that the Government of Guyana could go to battle against one of its own people, and in alignment with foreign interests. The thinking is that is that the costs in manpower deployed, the time used up, and the other resources of the people brought to bear could have been put to better use. We are sure that the astute AG (and his government) would agree that another $100 million in Supplementary funds would not have been needed to fight lawsuits brought against the State. It may not have been the entire $100M, but considerably less that was required.

The problem for the AG and his PPP/C Government is that citizens have concluded that since seeking to engage the government and its arrogant leaders is an exercise doomed to failure, there is only one option left, and it must be seized for all that it is worth. It is to seek justice and relief from the courts, and it is already happening with increasing frequency. It does not take a rocket scientist to foresee that the local horizon is going to be peppered and littered with more and more suits brought before the courts. To emphasise, many citizens and groups are now settled in their belief that the courts are the only avenue left for some much-needed cures to their ills.

With this in mind, it is hoped that the AG will advise the government that what is being experienced currently in the courts might only be the first showers representing more storms to come. From all appearances, Guyana is becoming a more litigious society, and quite a few of these appeals to the tribunes of the courts can hardly be dismissed as frivolous, for they have real substance, and will require some combating. The main Guyanese political Opposition has already signalled that it intends to transform the courts into a battleground and proving ground, since the National Assembly is such a barren stretch of ground. At the rate that all of this is anticipated to thicken and congest the courts, it is clear that much more than that $100M approved as Supplementary funds is going to be needed. It has long been held true that politics is war by other means. We are seeing that and living with that today, with Guyana’s courts inundated with a string of lawsuits. Our little word of advice is, get ready, Mr. AG, and it looks like much more money is going to be needed.

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