THE desperation of the Opposition is driving the most bizarre behaviour and utterances from the leaders and their allies in the media, and NGOs like WPA/APNU women’s arm – Red Thread, Transparency International (Guyana), which is run by an AFC supporter, GHRA, et al, and some known characters that write effusively in the opposition media.Their primary weapon of choice is character assassination of PPP/C leaders and government functionaries – even technocrats not politically affiliated to the PPP, basically with misrepresentation/distortion of facts and outright lies, which was admitted by Kaieteur News’ Editor-in-Chief Adam Harris on live television during a corruption debate on NCN as a result of an outright challenge by Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh. On that same programme, Kaieteur News’ publisher, Glen Lall, also admitted that most times, without verifying the facts or ascertaining veracity, his newspaper publishes articles provided by the Opposition political parties.
The latest victim being targeted is Guyana’s Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Hon. Anil Nandlall.
The AG has an impeccable reputation – both at professional and personal levels; and they have found it difficult to find filth to daub on his character so far, because he accumulated his formidable wealth before he became a Minister of Government and his salary as a government functionary is probably less than that earned in a day in his private practice; but like Irfaan Ali, who gave up a well-paid job in an international funding agency, and Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who refused innumerable offers that would make his disputed pension look like peanuts from the Bretton Woods institutions and other international organisations, Anil Nandlall eschewed financial rewards to serve his country which, as all of them are discovering, is a very thankless task indeed.
But manufacturing filth to daub on others is their forte’, something intrinsic to the joint Opposition that former President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo termed “The Corbin Syndrome”. But this is one of the rare times that Dr. Jagdeo seems to have made a mistake, because this ploy of drawing red herrings to cover their own actions is inherent to the opposition’s make-up and not peculiar to merely Corbin.
So Nigel Hughes, after he was exposed for alleged jury tampering in one of the worst murder cases in the history of the country – a case he did pro bono, attempted damage control for going to such lengths to defend a self-confessed murderer of innocent people, including sleeping babies in their homes in Lusignan, by daubing the Attorney-General with the mess he had been wallowing in; with Khemraj Ramjattan also making similar reprehensible allegations against the AG, which even his own media supporters ignored for the idiotic perspective he tried to bring to bear on the infamous Lusignan murder case.
The rabid defenders of the Opposition collective also saw this as an opportunity to tarnish the AG’s reputation, and one can immediately recall Ramjattan’s threat to take down Government functionaries ‘one by one’. Well, after Ministers Rohee, Ashni Singh and Irfaan Ali, and former President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who is still considered a formidable threat by the opposition combo, it seems that it is now Minister Nandlall’s turn.
The latest salvo against Minister Nandlall came in the form of a letter of some length published in the Kaieteur News of March 17 under the caption “Was the P.P.P playing political games with the Lusignan Massacre trial”, purportedly written by one M. Maxwell, in which several farcical allegations were made against the minister.
In response, Minister Nandlall wrote, inter alia: “Some attempt is made to ensnare me in the conundrum in which Mr. Nigel Hughes has found himself in relation to the foreman of the jury in the Lusignan massacre murder trial. And also, there is some attempt to convert the PPP into the prosecutorial realm of criminal proceedings in our legal system…The PPP, as a political party, plays no role in the prosecution of criminal matters. In fact, the Constitution specifically insulates political influence from the prosecutorial process. The assertion, therefore, that the PPP failed to deliver a conviction in the Lusignan Massacre is simply ludicrous. The impression is conveyed that the Attorney-General superintends the DPP in the discharge of her functions, but that is equally grounded in pure ignorance.
“Article 187 of the Constitution vests in the DPP the power to institute, undertake, takeover, continue or discontinue criminal proceedings within the State of Guyana. It specifically provides that, in the exercise of those powers, the DPP “shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority”.
Minister Nandlall continued: “The DPP has already issued a public statement on this matter when Mr. Hughes, questioned why the DPP and the Attorney General converted one accused person into a state witness in the Lusignan massacre murder trial.
I deliberately ignored Mr. Hughes, because I reckoned that he must be aware of the provisions of Article 187, and intended to be facetious by posing such a question to the Attorney-General.
“The letter next proceeds to link me to Vernon Griffith, the foreman of the jury in that infamous trial, by contending that I had “a more recent relationship with Griffith”, and later on, that I had “a more recent non-hostile relationship with that juror”.
Unfortunately, the author did not explain the nature and purport of this “relationship” between Mr. Griffith and me. However, I surmise that there is only one issue to which he can be referring: In October, 2011, Mr. Manoj Narayan, Attorney-at-Law and an associate in my law firm, filed an action for libel for and on behalf of Vernon Griffith.” Documents produced by Mr. Ramjattan, in which he dishonestly attempted to implicate AG Nandlall, were signed by Mr. Narayan, so Ramjattan knew that Minister Nandlall had no client-attorney relationship with Griffith.
Nandlall is Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs and is not expected to keep track of cases dealt with by the capable attorneys in his law firm, nor is he expected to overlook cases in every courtroom; so it is hardly likely that the minister would be aware that the jury foreman in the Lusignan murder trial was a former client of an attorney in his law firm; and neither Narayan nor Nandlall was in the courtroom where Griffith was the jury foreman, but Nigel Hughes was, as the defence attorney, and it was incumbent upon him or Griffith to reveal that they shared a relationship of six years’ duration.
Not the “Corbin Syndrome”, but the opposition syndrome has become endemic to local politics; but in this instance the mud is not sticking. Truth has prevailed in this instance.