Reaching to Pres Ali for a favor

Pride is swallowed.  A favor is publicly asked of the PPP Govt.  Because there is utter confidence that people in the Office of the President, Office of the Prime Minister, and Office of the 2nd Vice President all avidly absorb what I share with the Guyanese people, my plea will get to the right person in the right place.  My tried-and-true philosophy for the PPP (and others) is simple.  I write, they read.  This message is for His Excellency, President Mohamed Irfaan Ali.

I have a problem.  Even more importantly, the entire region has a problem, a huge one.  The CCJ President, Justice Winston Anderson, is digging in his heels, seems settling in for a long stay.  Not to mince words, that would be the worst development for Guyana, and all those other big and small countries dotting the map between here and the Bahamas.  Hence, this appeal to Guyana’s Pres Ali.

From all indications, he shares a more than solid relationship with Justice Anderson.  I think it would not be out of bounds to assert that the relationship is so close, as to be an intimate and trusted one.  Think of this, my fellow citizens.  Would Pres Ali deign to engage any Justice Tom, or Dick, or Harry to discuss the hang ups relative to the frozen state of the appointments of Guyana’s chancellor of the judiciary and chief justice with the then Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Aubrey Norton?  Then, to follow up with him?  Then, to call back more than once, and test the patience of his listener by pushing the envelope further across the table until it was lodged in Mr. Norton’s gullet?  I don’t think so.  Not Pres Ali.  Not on a matter so long delayed, so infinitely delicate that a risk is taken, by placing it into clumsy or crude hands.  Not for those two appointments.  Pres Ali may be many things.  But one thing he is not: he is not reckless to the point of slackness.  Not when so much is involved.  Not when the power dynamic could come under pressure.  Not when Vice President, Dr. Jagdeo is there to coach him on the way things like CoJ and CJ are done.

Therefore, the CCJ’s President Anderson was the right partner with the right credentials (and title) and with the right level of gumption (go and get it done).  Having apparently cajoled President Anderson to take up that sensitive job. i.e., approach Mr. Norton for his buy-in on specified movements and names for Guyana’s CoJ and CJ positions, Pres. Ali now has to take it to another level.  The favor I ask of him is that he communicates to CCJ President Winston Anderson that he really should go quickly, quietly, into the night.  Ease away gingerly.  Walkaway with some residual dignity intact.  It is clear to me that there’s an extraordinary bond that exists between Guyana’s Pres Ali and the CCJ’s President Anderson.  Pres Ali must tap into that relationship and influence the CCJ number one to become the CCJ’s number eight.  That is, on the outside.  Out of the picture.  Out of contention.  He wouldn’t be out in the cold.  Might even be rescued by one of Exxon’s subsidiaries knocking about the place.

I understand the magnitude of the favor that I am asking of Guyana’s Pres Ali.  It is not such a simple matter to let go of a guaranteed ally at the region’s apex court.  But how will he be able to manage?  Inside of the CCJ is now like a gas chamber -all poison.  Outside of the CCJ, there is hostility and heartbreak.  In his defense, President Anderson put out a voluminous statement.  His problem was that there was a waiting chorus ready to take him on.  I think he is scarred and skinned.  I think that he is now seen as judicially anemic, a lame duck leader.  Pres Ali should nudge him, lean on him.  Time to go.  The PPP will have to go on.  So, would I.