Message for APNU and AFC: ‘When yuh buy ah dutty calico, yuh gat fuh wear am till it tear’

OUR dictators in the APNU and AFC have sought refuge in the separation of powers between the Legislative and Judiciary to hide from the CJ’s ruling, but yet they want to control Government.Old Kai never laughed as much as he did yesterday; it was not the joy at the Chief Justice Ian Chang’s final ruling on the budget cut case, rather it was the hilarious semantics of Basil Williams and Moses Nagamootoo, who appeared to be two peas ‘hugging up tightly’ in a pod.
Everyone can understand APNU’s Basil Williams proclivity for authoritarianism, after all he is a product of Papa Doc Burnham; but a great many people have been left astonished by the actions of Moses, whom they are now calling Guyana’s Mussolini. Some people even see a great resemblance between chubby faced Moses and the late Italian dictator. So it’s not Moses anymore, it is Mosssesoolini!
But you should not be surprised at Mussolini’s actions, as PPP stalwarts will tell you that when he was young he had attempted to leave the PPP and Cheddi Jagan with a group during a PYO Conference in the 1970’s on the East Bank of Demerara, and move across to the Burnham Government so as to cozy up with the dictator. No one followed him and for one reason or the other he aborted his plan. However, a few decades later, he has apparently fulfilled his dream as he is now singing out of the same hymnbook with his friends, the not so young dictators in the PNC, now APNU.
By now everyone already knows that Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang on Wednesday gave his final ruling that the Constitution does not allow the opposition in the National Assembly to cut the government’s budget. They were told this much way back in 2012 by the PPP/C, when Moses and crew first started using their scissors on the budget. Did they listen? No! So after the High Court ruling from the Chief Justice explaining in detail why they were wrong in the first instance, do they intend to listen? No!
We are told that the Opposition has indicated that they intend to disregard the High Court ruling and will cut the 2014 Budget if the need arises. Well Old Kai has a message for both the APNU and AFC: always remember that “When yuh buy ah dutty calico yuh gat fuh wear am till it tear” and I hope they are prepared to abide with the consequences of their continued reckless statements and actions.
Basil Williams’s argument as to why APNU will not respect the ruling of the High Court makes one wonder how this gentleman became an attorney-at-law in the first place. His rants about David Granger being struck out from the case and not being allowed to give evidence, which is his major argument as to why they will not respect the ruling, is pathetic. He is quoted as saying “…but before we could argue that, we were struck out, given no opportunity to be heard on whether we can cut the Budget or waive our immunity”. Did he just say, ‘APNU was given no opportunity to be heard’ in the case? So what was the team of opposition lawyers, including Williams himself, doing during this budget cut case since 2012? Is he admitting they were lollygagging all along, wasting the court’s time and simply trying to delay the outcome of the case for as long as possible? This would not surprise Old Kai one bit, as this seems to be their modus operandi.
Williams then cues up his crocodile tears as we are told by the media that “The implication of the CJ’s ruling, Williams suggested, is that when APNU wins anything in Parliament and government goes to court when dissatisfied, “we will not be able to give our side of the story.”
So APNU and AFC were playing a ‘game’ in parliament with the nation’s business and you ‘won’, eh Williams? And, is he saying they were not able to present their arguments before the Court? If this was the case, then the media reports since the case started detailing the arguments of APNU’s legal team and witnesses were apparently conjured up.
Smart-man Moses then backs up his APNU buddy Williams by announcing, “It is thus convenient to conclude that the CJ’s ruling is a cover up malfeasance by the Finance Minister.’ He said money not appropriated by Parliament was spent by the Minister, “who could very well face sanctions” by the Parliamentary Committee of Privileges.
Is this man serious? He is accusing the Finance Minister of spending money which the High Court has informed was illegally cut by the Opposition. If anyone is to be taken before the Parliamentary Committee of Privileges, it should be Moses and his entire Opposition crew. They have time and again shown a penchant for disregarding the laws of our country and thus they are losing the confidence of their own supporters, so much so Moses is crying publicly that they have stopped donating money to his party.
These childish arguments by the AFC and APNU aside, the ruling by the Chief Justice should be seen as a victory for all law abiding Guyanese. The claim that they will not respect the ruling until they appeal and the Caribbean Court of Justice makes a final ruling, is hogwash.
You will recall just recently, a High Court injunction brought against the Public Works Ministry by AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan on behalf of his client, an auto dealer, which stalled upgrading of the four-lane road in the Success area by over one year, was eventually quashed. When the Public Works Ministry moved in to demolish the illegal structures on Government reserve, Mr. Ramjattan again secured an injunction as he indicated his intention to appeal and move to the CCJ. He was adamant that the order from the High Court be respected, and as such Public Works had to put on hold their exercise once again.
We know eventually Ramjattan’s client admitted he was in the wrong and removed from the reserve; but important here was the AFC leader being adamant that the High Court ruling be respected by the Government (which they did), until he appealed the case. However, conveniently, in the budget cut case Ramjattan’s, party is supporting APNU in advocating a disregard for the High Court ruling until they appeal to the CCJ.
What a tangled web they weave!
In all of this, the Opposition is claiming that the Legislative arm of Government is independent from the Judicial arm, and as such it is not subject to any direction in the conduct of its affairs; this much has been said by both the AFC and APNU. Using their mode of argument, it is then logical to conclude that they have no business trying to administer the responsibility of the Executive from their seats in the National Assembly, as according to no less than their Speaker, Mr. Raphael Trotman, ‘The principle of comity dictates that the three branches of government – the Executive, the Legislative and the Juidical, are all separate and equal, and are to respect the rights and authority of each other.’
With this in mind, we hope that Mr. Trotman is listening to himself and will advise his Opposition colleagues accordingly as it is important to note that the High Court ruling confirmed that “the Constitution provides for the Finance Minister to present the budget since the finance of the country is the responsibility of the Executive; and for the Opposition to cut the budget and then approve it, then the estimates are no longer that of the Finance Minister, but that of the Assembly.”