Good news that we are closer to getting a Law School 

Sep 28, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

On Tuesday, September 27, 2022, I read a letter addressed to you in the Letter writers’ Column of the daily KAIETEUR NEWS, captioned ‘A.G. and team landed a great breakthrough’ by H. Singh.

1. Singh stated that the initiative had been heralded and outstandingly spearheaded by the Honorable A.-G., Anil Nandlall, accompanied by Kamal Ramkarran, and Teni Housty, Senior Counsel and Attorneys-at-Law, respectively, in traveling to meet with the Council of Legal Education Officials, and to make a final breakthrough in the establishment of a Law School on Guyana soil.

It pleases me [well] to have learned that the current Guyanese Government has seen it fit to extend to the Council free land in Guyana to build a Law School, and as H. Singh rightly mentions “deserving of accolades.” I also feel this is fantastic news and quite big. I must say when one sets up an Institution of Learning when one passes, much blessings from the Almighty will still accumulate in one’s good books. By getting involved in the building of such a Law School on Guyana soil, Mr. Ramkarran, Mr. Housty as well as Mr. Nandlall are all in for blessings as the years unfold as students continue using the facilities provided in that Institution of Higher Learning.

On a personal front, I remember being a student at The Hugh Wooding Law School myself as a Guyanese student there around 2000, and from my experiences, I can personally say on the record the following:

1. a) Landlords were exploiting tenants from Guyana, St Lucia, Dominica, and Grenada, and in a big way. The despicable landlords charged exorbitant rents for shabby, highly over- priced, pest-infested, poorly constructed and/or ventilated units. Complaints occurred, oral or written- Landlords often times became offensive, rude and unfair to the students, and some could not care less of the tenancy laws as some took a high-handed approach.

Indeed, some students had to resort to court to seek redress. I remember one such student who went to court to solve his issues, Mr. Ronald Burch-Smith, former Guyana Bar Association President, a classmate.

1. b) The law school Administration was disconnected from the lives and welfare of overseas students, so much so that whenever representation was made about their plights while living and studying in a neighboring country, nothing came of it. Overseas students were left to address all the issues or matters confronting them personally without assistance.
2. c) The Trinidadian Immigration Authorities and officials were very nasty in their reception to Guyanese law students at the airport – I remember being treated discriminately and unfairly at the Piarco one day upon arrival. The Officer even took me in a vehicle to Port of Spain at the Canadian Consulate offices to verify my passport’s authenticity, a learned Canadian official told him he had no right to do so, and was then left at the Consulate to struggle in a strange country to get back to my destination, so out of touch with reality Trinidadians were.
3. d) The teacher and back-up tutors lecturing and doing Tutorials in Civil Practice and Procedure in both Years 1 and 2 were all totally out to lunch, and the majority of Guyanese students, in my humble view, were all placed in situations of braving the storm to pass that subject. The focus and main thrust of all materials given to students as handouts was totally on the jurisdiction of Trinidad and Tobago. I remember having to choose Trinidad and Tobago jurisdiction to do my written assignment on, during Year 1 because of a lack of material in the library to digest in order to hand in a basic decent factual or research answer.
4. e) Students had to resort to the material being brought in from Guyana and their home jurisdictions and from personal resources to enhance their knowledge in at least these following subjects’ areas: Legal Drafting, Landlord & Tenant Law, Law of Evidence, Status Rights & Obligation, Criminal Practice & Procedure, and Constitutional Law.

When I had written to the A.-G. complaining of the shabby, unfair, and unwarranted treatment by the Law School Administration while studying at the law school meted out to Guyanese, I did not even get a reply. I knew the Honorable Minister had received my letter because it had been personally delivered to him by the Honourable Chief Justice Carl Singh, S.C. who had been visiting the Campus one day while in Trinidad and Tobago on some other business, as I had given him the letter in the Law School Library.

1. f) The dawn of the new J O F Haynes Law School, a terrific name yes, but in my view, ought to be named the ‘Anil Nandlall, Senior Counsel, Law School’ , for what this gentleman has done for Guyana – Because surely none of this would have happened without his sterling and undaunting desire to see the long overdue law school built. Based on what he has done, I can safely postulate that, Guyanese Law Grads coming out of U.G., have been extended an olive branch. I don’t envy them.

Yours Faithfully,

Mr. M. Shabeer Zafar

(barrister solicitor and Notary, retired)
New Brunswick, Canada

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