Those who speak glowingly of Anil Nandlall fail to mention string of losses to Darren Wade

Please allow me to reply to the letter campaign by Prescott Mann, Gaylord Riley, and others which sings the praises of our Attorney General Anil Nandlall, for while “the good is often interred with the bones”, we must speak plainly when individuals are still in the land of the living.

Mr. Nandlall and all his capabilities are well known to us who work with him at the party; suffice to say he got the votes at our congress commensurate with his performance in office.

The ‘writers’ speak glowingly of Nandlall’s record as Attorney General but fail to mention the string of losses to junior attorney Darren Wade, including Nandlall’s first case as a Senior Counsel!

We in the party have watched this string of perplexing losses in seemingly straightforward cases with some alarm as we remember that it was the same Anil Nandlall who gave then President Ramotar poor advice on matters such as the Guyana Cricket Board and the Red House lease; there is speculation among the rank and file that Nandlall is doing the same to Irfaan Ali deliberately!

I subscribe to the view that Mr. Nandlall is a decent lawyer but is not a good manager, to be the Minister of Legal Affairs one needs to hire based on competence and work ethic, both are lacking as case after case sees the AG begging for more time to make submissions, the GTU case is one on point. If one were to extrapolate that performance to one of theoretical ‘President’ we would be in for a catastrophic failure.

The ‘writers’ talk about Nandlall’s performance in the various electoral matters, but my memory is of  Trinidadian Counsel Douglas Mendez who led all of the PPP electoral matters with erudite arguments and some panache, and party members and groups would welcome such a man at the helm of our Ministry of Legal Affairs and as our Attorney General; many countries appoint foreign lawyers to that position as the chief legal adviser to the President and Cabinet.

In closing, I remain a staunch comrade of Mr. Nandlall but must put the welfare of my country and party before our friendship and make what is known internally available to the public at large; namely, Mr. Nandlall is better at self-promotion than at management of people and time; his ambitions exceed his abilities.

I hope this letter serves as a reminder to all that we serve our country and, its people, not ourselves when we hold public office.