By GHK Lall- Thanks are due to CCJ President Justice Winston Anderson for his statement in the context of the raging maelstrom of Email-Gate. He himself is trapped in its vortex. It’s a valiant effort. But I weigh whether he helped his cause, or did more harm to himself. I came to different interpretations of his lengthy statement, few of them, if any, redounding to his plus column. Note is taken of what he addressed, and how he did. Note is also taken of what he bypassed, as though it is not part of this ugly story.
I never placed too much emphasis on the dress code aspect of the allegations. But it does have some bearing. My thinking is that the dress code served as a ‘red herring’ to throw off the track. President Anderson continued with that commitment in his lengthy explanation of how it featured, and why it doesn’t rise to the level of suspicion and condemnation that it did. I do not think that the CCJ Chief Judge was persuasive.
Relative to the troubling issue of the longstanding non appointments of chancellor of the judiciary and chief justice of Guyana, Justice Anderson tried to circle around and then minimize his involvement. Justice Anderson is a learned man; one who knows the lay of the land, having travelled around the block more than once. Justice Anderson is wise enough to know that he is not Henry Kissinger. Or that there should not be one from the judicial arena operating as such in a private, behind-the-scenes capacity in a domestic matter that is fraught with tension and peril.
As much as he wanted to help, a CCJ President is nobody’s messenger, should not serve as anybody’s agent. He rightly pointed to the stances and standards ingrained in the public postures of two of his predecessors. Two of them and public postures on Guyana’s CoJ and CJ impasse. I am glad he discerned as much. But at what cost his involvement? Persistent and devoted and vigorous involvement, to what price?
Not only to himself, but to the institution that stood as a beacon to the diverse people of this region. It is one of the few, one of the last standing, institutions that is hallowed with such reverence. If I may, the CCJ at its best is looked upon by the peoples of this region as their Statue of Liberty, their Wailing Wall, their Holy Land. For those who think that I went overboard, pardon is sought.
Even after he consented to function as a go-between from Guyana’s President Ali to the Opposition’s Mr. Norton, there had to come that time when several things touched his mind. First, he is being used. Second, this is not his place. Third, he has gone too far. Fourth, he needed to extricate himself from a purely domestic matter. A highly charged political one to boot. When President Anderson failed to grasp those essentials, he wronged himself, and inflicted a terrible stamp on the CCJ.
If one of its junior judges would attract frowns of disapproval for allowing himself or herself to be entangled in Guyana’s CoJ and CJ bitter, never-ending stalemate, how much more unbecoming for the CCJ head judge to allow himself to become embroiled in the politically insoluble? I hate to say it, but Justice Anderson overreached, and it was not by inches, and it was not once. I regret to assert that his late arriving flight of wisdom, his mea culpa, matters not at this stage.
I appreciate the attempt at clearing the air, but President Anderson was doing nothing but bailing himself out of a self-inflicted, sticky situation. Since he came so uncomfortably close to Guyana’s political architecture then what does bode for the dispensing of justice at the CCJ? This is not about a momentary lapse in judgment. I think that there was injudicious and sustained partnership out of which little good could have resulted. It may have been for the best of reasons. Justice Anderson was the wrong man in the wrong place functioning in the wrong role.
Last, I note that President Anderson said there was “complete unanimity” in the decision on the highly sensitive Azruddin Mohamed extradition matter. Yet, it featured prominently in the leaked emails. Did the protesting judges get it wrong? Is there a move inside of the CCJ to unseat President Anderson? His point of robust give-and-take is well-received.
The questions linger. The uncertainty thickens. There is “complete unanimity,” then there are claims to the contrary. The CCJ is in a grey, gloomy, place. The more that is heard, the more there is dread. In leaving, I thank him. In my leaving, I think he also should think of his next move, what is best for the CCJ. And the peoples of this region.
