Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall has declared that efforts by the Opposition to sidetrack the process of the Linden Commission of Inquiry (COI) and the subsequent attacks on the integrity of the Commissioners is against the highest traditions of the legal profession and should be rejected by all Guyanese.
During an interview with the Government Information Agency, Minister Nandlall stated that it was unfortunate that is happening.
Speaking on the Opposition’s perception that the Commissioners prevented them from properly cross-examining persons who appeared before them, the AG stated that it is against the highest tradition of the profession to do things like badgering and abusing a witness, and when rebuked by the Commission for doing so, they respond by criticising and casting aspersions “on the character and integrity of the tribunal, all because the agenda which you set out to establish and the objectives which you set out to achieve, you have been unable to achieve it.”
Members of the Commission of Inquiry : Guyana’s former Justice of Appeal, Claudette Singh; former Chief Justice of Jamaica, Lensley Wolfe; former independent senator in Trinidad and Tobago, Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal and Jamaica’s Former National Security Minister, Senior Counsel K.D. Knight. The other COI member missing from photo is Justice Cecil Kennard
Minister Nandlall said it is a norm in the legal profession to accept and move on when a case is lost or does not go one’s way.
In the case of the Linden COI, the AG posited that the difficulty lay in the fact that the Opposition had created public expectations and made grand public assertions of what they intend to prove.
“They asserted that they had the evidence to prove it and when the opportunity presented itself for them to discharge those obligations, to make good those promises to confirm and prove those public assertions, they abysmally failed to do so.”
He compared the opposition’s actions with those of a bad workman regularly blaming his tools. “So you have that playing out. Having created a public furor, they can’t go and accept to the public out there that they misled them. So the easiest thing they found to do as a method of survival, they begun a campaign to blame and derail the process and to blame the tribunal.”
Minister Nandlall stated emphatically that this is something which must be rejected by a civilised society.
”In a democracy we have processes that are established by law to deal with grievances that people have. That’s a central part of civilisation and the leadership of any country, as well as a democracy. When you reject and derail those processes, not because they are not functioning, but because they are not delivering what you want to deliver; even though you have not presented to them the ammunition and evidence; the requisite legal arguments to persuade them to accept your position – you reject them.”
That the justice process has been rejected by the opposition is clearly shown on the social networking sites, the Minister observed. “I think what is going on, on the internet and in the letter columns of the newspapers is completely abominable and we as a people, a country, a society, have to reject those pronouncements, allegations and assertions in the strongest possible manner.”
What is playing out is a campaign of vilification and defamation to attack and tarnish the integrity of persons who have distinguished themselves in their profession, their professional pursuits and in the countries in which they have operated, the Minister said.
“We selected these people through a careful process, through a joint process with the opposition. We solicited the assistance of CARICOM to shortlist for us, the names of persons of suitable integrity, qualifications and standing to be part of this commission. We didn’t choose these people arbitrarily. We went through a process in which the opposition was very much a part,” Nandlall said.
It was the Opposition that had emphatically requested that persons outside of Guyana constitute this commission.
“We got Caribbean personalities of impeccable standing and these are the very persons who they are attacking. They are not attacking the Guyanese; they are attacking those very persons who they are insisting must be part of the process. So because a judge or a commission does not find in your favour cannot be the basis to launch an attack on the integrity of the process. It cannot be or else people will not be judges, our judiciary may have to close down. Because every time a judge gives a ruling, you criticise the judge, assault the integrity of the personnel, rather than accept that you have not produced that which is required to persuade the tribunal to arrive at a conclusion which you want them to arrive at.”
The Linden Commission of Inquiry had been established to conduct hearings to determine whether three persons who met their demise during protest actions in Linden on July 18 had been killed by the police.
The COI also has to determine whether Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee had issued orders to the Police to use deadly force and whether he had been instructed by his Government to ensure that the protest did not go past the first day. During their examination of the testimony the Commissioners have also to determine whether the police acted within the precincts of their Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs).
The Home Affairs Minister was very vehement that he did no wrong and had given no instruction to shoot anyone.
So far the testimony of the witnesses and the evidence produced have failed to conclusively prove any of the issues presented.
The Commission wrapped up the hearings on Friday and is to submit its report in January 2013.
