Political hypocrisy of the highest order
THESE ARE interesting times; but very revealing for the hypocrisy, political opportunism, and unbridled deceit now being aired publicly, following President Granger’s appointment of the Chairman for the Guyana Elections Commission(GECOM).
First, it must be clearly emphasised that the Chairmanship of GECOM is crucial in the preparation and staging of Local Government and National Elections that are free and fair and which must be able to withstand scrutiny. Therefore, the person to be elected has to satisfy criteria that synchronises with elections that are expected to be transparent.
It is against this background, we conclude, that the President has acted in his deliberate judgement, selecting a retired High Court Judge who embodies the quality of impartiality, integrity, honesty, faithfulness and diligence, apart from being “qualified to exercise unlimited jurisdiction in civil matters.”
Notwithstanding the fact that the Leader of the Opposition is an integral part of the selection process, it should be borne in mind that there is a constitutional responsibility that rests with the president in ensuring that the process proceeds as constitutionally required. And this begins with the submission of a list of nominees.
It is the right of the President to carefully scrutinize and consider the names of nominees. Therefore, given those which were submitted especially in the first and second lists, no president who understands and takes his constitutional duties seriously, would have arrived at a decision, other than what was made – rejection of the list and names.
In essence, those lists were politically loaded, provocative in every respect, designed not to give the president much space for consideration. This is a fact that he had emphasised.
Those lists were filled with persons who were known financiers, sympathisers, and campaigners for a political party – the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C). This was totally dishonest and intended to deceive the nation. In the main, it was disrespectful to the President to have the Leader of the Opposition submit such lists, a fact of which Bharat Jagdeo had been well aware. Why then, would he have expected President Granger to legitimise such a deceit?
What is being deliberately misrepresented is that Article 182(01) of the Constitution “empowers the President to act in his own deliberate judgement’’. In fact, the learned Chief Justice Roxanne George in the Marcel Gaskin case, spells out the fact that, “The submission of the list does not mean that the President is obliged to accept the lists or the persons named in it. The judgement goes on to state that if there is deficiency in the list, “either in totality or in the names that have been included”, he can deem the entire list “unacceptable.”
This is where the President had good cause to resort to Article 161(2). He has selected retired Justice James Patterson, who in his judgement embodies the residual qualities required for Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission.
Since the qualities as spelt out, have to do with personal integrity, we ask what does it have to do with age. Certainly, it is not a constitutional requirement. Then, why is it being made an issue in the instance of the newly-elected chairman?
This is political hypocrisy of the highest order, particularly by Jagdeo and his party, and moreover, by many of the critics of the President’s decision. Is it not a fact that at least two members of the first list, Professor James Rose and Retired Major General Norman Mc Lean, submitted by the Leader of the Opposition, are also octogenarians? Would there have been a hue and cry, had either of these two persons been selected, even if by mutual agreement?
To further say in a writ, filed by PPP/C Executive Secretary, Zufilkar Mustpha, against the President’s selection, that Justice Patterson is a pastor, and was a pall-bearer at the late President Hoyte’s funeral, is as asinine, as it is balderdash.
Is not Onesi La Fleur, one of the names on the third list, a man of the cloth?
But this is the nature of politics: Hypocrisy and unbridled opportunism. These are on national display at the moment with the newly-righteous suddenly finding their voices.