A call to conscience – that of the Hon. Attorney General

May 07, 2023 News, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall…

Kaieteur News – I plunge into different waters today.  I have a heart to heart with Guyana’s Hon. Attorney General, Mr. Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, MP, JP, CoAaO.  AG Nandlall is all of those things, for sure; but most of all he is my brother, which is why I dedicate, pour out, these few humble words before his ear.  I hope that he will listen, and that at the end of this writing, he will still be my brother.  He can denounce and damn, but let that umbilical cord of fraternal citizenship never depart.

I note that the Government of Guyana wasted not a single second in its haste to respond to Judge Sandil Kissoon’s ruling.  The PPP Government is going to appeal, and this is where the Hon AG features most prominently, and rather unfortunately.  It is his duty, he has before him the journey to lead the charge to overturn Judge Kissoon’s holding in this matter of full insurance coverage by ExxonMobil USA.  I give short thrift to this business about the parent company’s Guyana subsidiary, Esso, for all things ultimately tier up to Exxon of Irving, Texas.  The rest is chaff and semantics.

With that as compressed context, I turn my gaze to Guyana’s AG, Anil Nandlall.  I believe he is a man of conscience, a citizen of deep patriotic content, and one possessing soundness of reason and commonsense.  Not for a moment do I think that I place unbearable burdens on my brother wearing the mantle of Hon. Attorney General of Guyana.  As a figure possessing all the attributes I attach to him, I think that he has only one course of action left open to him.  AG Nandlall should resign.  Because I affix good conscience to his person, he cannot, should not, and must not engage in, be any part of, an appeal.  For what he is being asked to do, be the standard bearer for, is unconscionable to the core.  AG Nandlall knows that, Citizen Nandall knows that even more, and Kshatriya Nandall is most familiar with what I assert.

Rather than parse through provisions to challenge via this pending appeal of a courageous and sagacious adjudication, I appeal to the man Mohabir Anil Nandlall: stand up for Guyana, brother.  Just this once.  For what is known in the soul to be imperiling to every Guyanese.  Rather than grope for a legal straw or two to beat back a perspicacious ruling, how about using that same fevered energy to advance in pitched battle for the safety of Guyanese first.  Why not valiantly carry the flag of Guyana aloft, sir?  It would be a proud hour for all Guyanese to observe: AG Anil Nandlall standing up, standing out, and standing apart from the sinuous serpentine slides of his fellow members in the House of the Guyanese People, that venerable National Assembly.

Mr. Nandlall should resign because he cannot and will not partake in any appeal.  He will not partake of any role in this internecine warfare pitting Guyanese against Guyanese.  As the AG should know from his books of study in the forests of the law, the Romans were always about property over people.  So, they conquered.  The Greeks of philosophy gave the world democracy, but they also were conquerors on a global scale.  Now I hear that the Anglo Saxons have given us the liberty of self-determination and self-rule, first in 1966, and again in 2020.  But they are conquerors too, Mr. AG.  And every conqueror throughout history has been an exploiter and self-enricher, even the most benevolent and magnanimous among them.

AG, the conquerors and exploiters of Guyana today swear that they give Guyanese democracy, and even more nobly, they give us prosperity.  But, Mr. AG, they can’t give us full insurance coverage.  Exxon can make all this money from Guyana, but its heart is gladdened to do this without any liability that protects the Guyanese people.

Is that what my brother the Hon. Attorney General of Guyana is putting on his full suit of legal armor for, and with sword in hand to advocate?  I help untie the blindfold around his eyes: look there, those people are the dependent, expectant descendants of those who gave all and got nothing.  Except for the lash of whips and the sting of scorn.  The Guyanese people are looking for a champion to fight their battles, AG Nandlall.  Not another betrayer selling them out for a few pieces of silver, a chance at continuing with the ruling club, and acceptance into the embrace of leaders who have nothing left to barter.

It is my belief that AG Nandlall is made of finer stuff.  He must prove it now.  There can be no more meritorious course of action.  Resign, AG Nandlall.  Cease and desist from that dirty job of appealing.  Distance from that appeal that serves Exxon and sends Guyanese into serfdom, and its patented bankruptcies.  I have one more quiet word for the man, Mohabir Anil Nandlall: nothing could be more presidential in such resignation action, in its vital substances, and its national implications.

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• Attorney General, CoAaO., Guyana, JP, Mohabir Anil Nandlal, MP, Mr. Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC

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