Dear Editor,
SO, the Guyana Bar Association (GBA) has made a statement warning the government not to go ahead, with the unconstitutional appointments of a chancellor of the local judiciary and a chief justice, in an acting capacity.
Editor, if one is to be guided by statements emanating from the Ministry of the Presidency on this very important issue on the nation’s two seminal judicial positions, there is the understanding that the President will be seeking legal guidance from the Minister of Legal Affairs on the way forward.

With such a pronouncement from the government, such a statement from the GBA is misleading, and moreover mischievous and irresponsible, designed to create uncertainty in the nation’s judiciary. Editor, I do not pretend to be legally learned; however, my layman’s understanding of the law interprets that consistency should be the guide in legal decisions, and when such is absent, then there has to be cause for grave concern.

And I do repeat this, in light of what is definitely a double standard on the part of the GBA’s failure to demand from the leader of the opposition, his reasons for his refusal of the two proposed nominees. After all, not only did this representative body request the President to make public his reasons for rejecting the leader of the opposition’s submitted list of nominees for the chairmanship of GECOM, but had also filed a High Court motion against his decision not to do so.

Why the silence with regard to the opposition leader’s refusal? In fact, does the latter really have any credible reasons for refusal of the two distinguished nominees?
Regards
Earl Hamilton