Dear Editor,
I think that CCJ President, Dr. Winston Anderson, has only one option. My recommendation is that he tenders. From what is now concretized in the public record, most likely throughout the region, he is radioactive. If the allegations were from one colleague, I would urge him to ride it out. When it is five, and they wrote what they wrote, matters already gone too far – ‘he cork duck.’ It is my position. In the interests of the continuity of the CCJ, President Anderson should leave soonest. Regional friends should nudge him. Well-wishers in Guyana, likewise. The region’s apex court is too big, holds too much of a crucial role to be reduced to ongoing scorn.
Here’s his first challenge: who will work with him, look up to him? The second is how does he himself overcome the screamingly raw environment in chambers? I hear the management defence(s) made to two Trinidadian news outlets, but all that is vanquished, past returning. Collegial atmosphere -is somebody kidding? Misunderstanding and mischaracterization? These are men and women of calibre, deep intellectual powers. The CCJ is neither plantation nor political hothouse. I have difficulty thinking otherwise when the written communications from different objecting judges all point thereto. There is a problem, and it is a huge one. The allegations are not by word of mouth, heard in passing. They are in writing and loaded. To put differently, he was being called out directly, and sharply. The CCJ has much remedial work ahead. Now for the politics that touched the CCJ.
There’s Guyana’s current Opposition Leader, Mr. Azruddin Mohamed, who fell short of the mark in his matter before the CCJ. Going from the emails alone, it has been a struggle to ascertain how much of a political court the CCJ mutated into, and on whose head outside of the CCJ that rests.
From Mr. Azruddin Mohamed, it is to Mr. Aubrey Norton, former Leader of the Opposition. I recall the hiccups and hang ups surrounding the substantive appointments of the chancellor of the judiciary and chief justice of Guyana. For the unfamiliar, these two uppermost positions in the local judiciary have been in a state of suspense for years, unconfirmed, acting holders. In this snake pit ventured CCJ President Anderson relative to the chancellor (ag). Did he, really? Per Mr. Norton he did, who would have none of it, since it smacked of interference. Score a big one for Mr. Norton. Now, I am trying to make sense of the CCJ president’s action. Surely, a man of his stature and exposure had to know better. How did he end up where he did with the then Opposition Leader of Guyana on the chancellor matter?
Perhaps, it was a good deed. One done on his own initiative and the compulsion of altruism. I wouldn’t hold those against him. But what if it was not? It wouldn’t speak well of President Anderson’s judgement. Nor highly of anyone who gave him that inspiration, which Aubrey Norton rightly found to be grating. This is my bottom line. President Anderson resigns, and the CCJ is still in a rough place. Should he stay, I wouldn’t think much of the CCJ going forward.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
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