Just recently, there was a headline posted on, of all places, the website of “:The High Commission of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, in South Africa”, which screamed,” Chief Justice Dismissed Case Filed by Mocha Arcadia Squatters.”! A matter of such international import that our government thought it should have the fullest international circulation, well at least in Africa! I couldn’t find it anywhere else on the websites of our other diplomatic representation, for example in India, or the UK, or Canada or even on any of our Embassies websites. (But, that’s another matter).
It provoked a revisit however to a comment I had made which essentially spoke to a broader question than this specific issue-;the socio- political environment in which a constituency of a particular ethnic group (of African descent) continues to be stripped of every aspect of their human dignity by a power structure that corresponds to a society which George Orwell described in his respected, and prophetic novel, 1894.
A society that for all extent and purpose exists currently in Guyana. Our Guyana, mirrors Orwell’s dystopia. Our socio- political structure, in my mind and assessment, is equally an autocratic dictatorship, led by the Party- an omnipotent PPP instrument or appendage supreme in all its aspects. À society corrupted and deformed in which the judiciary, an arm of the State plays a very significant and crucial role but seldom favours the plebs, the proles, the poor!
In 1984, there is no law but crimes. In George Orwell’s 1984, everyone in Oceania, an imaginary province of his world, is subject to the Party’s control, which functions as a form of law, even though there are no formal, codified laws.The Party’s ideology and will dictate what is considered legal or illegal, enforced thru fear and…manipulation”! I find these correspondences, argued elsewhere, in Guyana. Here we have a codified body of law, but it appears only applicable to the poor, who it seems, are the ones to commit the crimes.
Task of judge not just to promote adherence to law adherence to a rule of fair law
I have seen the arguments and protestations that the Rule of Law do exit in Guyana, but of that I am sceptical since it raises so many questions about the’ Law’ What is ‘Law’? What is its purpose(s)? Legal scholars have debated this question ad nauseum and, I must admit, have found no certain agreement.
But, I do question, why should we limit ourselves, to be restricted or confined by its form, formalities, strictures, and formal boundaries if, perchance, we believed that Justice must be its ultimate outcome? For myself, the larger question of Justice motivates me, and allows me a greater freedom, unrestrained by those willing to accept its limitations, at the risk of doing further injury to those that seek its protection, that’s seek Justice.
My expectation in these matters is simply that Justice must prevail in favour of the disadvantaged, the marginalised, the discriminated, though the formal codes may favour the power structure! It matters not to me if the injustice or injury comes from the failure of the representation of a victim’s claim or even from the rigidity of the law. An injury was suffered and the injured cried out for justice!
But, again and again in our dystopia, Justice has fled those portals in which it was sought. I don’t care to argue the petty legalisms presented to justify our moral and ethical failures. Our conscious retreat from our good and collective conscience has no reason, no rationale, no defense.
If we were to found our argument on the cold, rigid and sterile letter of the law, which at times in our shameful past permitted the enslavement of humans and made chattel slaves of people out of Africa, then I would have to accept that we remain trapped in centuries of human degradation and oppression and exploitation and of dehumanization. To accept that our humanity has not caught up with us, I vehemently object! And, so, I look for ‘ what is’ just in the law’ rather than what is merely ‘the law ‘
In a recent engagement at the Oxford Union last August, the Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Chandrachud held that “the task of a judge is not just to promote adherence to the law but to promote adherence to a rule of fair law.” He shares too, that ” The law can be humanised when the Judge adopts a nuanced and humanising approach towards adjudication”.
The former Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, Justice Earl Warren shared a similar sentiment, which he addressed thus, ” It is the spirit not the form of the law that keeps Justice alive!”. He reminds posterity by an inscription found on his tombstone in Arlington cemetery that,
“Where there is injustice, we should correct it;
where there is poverty, we should eliminate it;
where there is corruption, we should stamp it out;
where there is neglect, we should provide care”
I embrace that. We all should too! ”
And, we should also let the rest of the world know we sincerely do, by our deeds, not by diplomatic propaganda! “
