The CCJ – hanging on a string

Aug 20, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – I used to look at the CCJ as a bridge over troubled waters. Up in the air now. When the expectation was that regional judicial heads would take a stand, they withered, faded, ultimately collapsed under the weight of their own reasoning, and sequencing, their misdirected gaze. In the circumstances, only the frankest of representations will help to convey the distaste over what is now in the public domain. Only the sharpest position relays the disappointment at what should have been a drive to get to the heart of the related truths, but turned out to be a movement in reverse. The CCJ has to be that bridge on which people in this region can prostrate themselves with their petitions, confident that they will not be runover, that no one takes them for a ride. Or for a fool. Regrettably, the CCJ has decayed into a dangerously swaying bridge over troubled waters. The rougher the troubled waters, the weaker the bridge.

It is not an hour to stand on ceremony at the CCJ. There isn’t the luxury of dragging feet, buying time. There shouldn’t be splitting of hairs, in the hope of locating a safe harbour to take refuge. This is a tangled affair. It has stripped the CCJ of credibility. Unless those who stand as overseers realise that the entire entity, the whole machinery, is now under the harshest, most unforgiving, glare, then they are wasting precious time, they are of little utility. This is not a season for playing with words. It is the season for sparing no one. For leaving no stone unturned, no matter how heavy. Or how much apprehension there may be about what lies beneath. Or any fear about where those discoveries could lead. I think that the time for talking and reasoning is over. It should have been the day before those emails came to light.

The CCJ is in a crisis. It is neither healthy nor encouraging for the diverse peoples of this region. The CCJ hangs by a thread, which is dangerous for the region. It is a thread that should be strengthened before it snaps. I am heavy from thinking of what that could mean, where that could lead. None is bigger than the whole. No one should be railroaded out of where he or she is. None should be protected at all costs. However, there are times when the cost of carrying becomes so intolerable that radical measures have to be taken. In graphic terms, a limb has to be amputated so that the body is not further poisoned. So that it is saved. So, that it is given the time, space, and opportunity to revitalise. Maybe even rise above where it was before.

Counsel C.A. Nigel Hughes identified heads of government as being the proper arbiters. They must act, if only to present a straight and true CCJ to the regional publics. Why take the risk of every petitioner starting out with qualms, continuing with increasing anxieties and, in the end, forever disagreeing (wrongly) with rulings. Because of whose hands and minds are part of the process. Because of the judgments handed down were by the slimmest majority, leading to those who came up short publicly questioning what else could have been involved. This is how delicately and precariously perched the CCJ is right now. It is the worst of places for an apex court to be. It is the poorest of planks on which to ask the people of this region to stand.

Already, too much time has elapsed. Already, too much talking has filled the air. Already, the residual confidence of the public drips away. There is the danger of it draining away in a flood. There must be honest, determined, and meaningful action now. Less politics, more about the value of the CCJ’s integrity and its lost pride of place. There must be leadership action with the greater good in mind. To retrieve and restore the trust of the ordinary citizen huddled along the shores of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic banks. To delay would be deadly. To dither could lead to the damaging, from where there is no recovery. A duty is owed to the people not to let the CCJ reach anywhere near any of these unthinkable abysses from which I shrink.

(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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