THE Alliance for Change (AFC) should be the last grouping of persons to speak on certain matters since its leadership has been embroiled in repeated controversy over the last few years – a clear case of its members living in glass houses, yet insistent on throwing stones. Notably too is that the evidence of this is a matter of public record; it is well documented. AFC’s Leader, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, himself has consistently misused his Parliamentary position to advance the cause of clients who retain him in his private capacity as a lawyer. For example it was alleged that he was retained by Fedders Lloyd to challenge in court the award of the Specialty Hospital to Surendra Engineering Company Limited (SECL). Fedders Lloyd was one of the unsuccessful bidders in this case. Mr. Ramjattan never filed any legal proceedings; instead he used his votes in the Parliament to withhold budgetary allocations for the project. He was also retained by Mr. Robert Badal, owner of the Pegasus Hotel, to challenge in court the Marriot Hotel project. Again, he never filed any legal proceeding but misused his Parliamentary standing to withhold budgetary allocations for the project. Also, the AFC Leader is currently on trial at the Legal Practitioners’ Committee on the merits of an allegation from a one-legged beggar who claims that Mr. Ramjattan’s professional misconduct caused him to lose his property.

On the other hand there is Mr. Moses Nagamootoo who was retained for several years by NICIL and paid over $6M. He never disclosed that to the Parliament, even as he and his party continued to attack NICIL in and out of the National Assembly. The Standing Orders of Parliament mandate that such disclosures must be made. The same Nagamootoo also told the nation that the President’s pension was never supported by him and he was put to shame by a Government Member of Parliament who produced the evidence in the Hansard that showed that he did in fact vote in support of the Presidential pension package.
There is also Mrs. Cathy Hughes whose public relations’ company was retained by Fip Motilall of Synergy Inc., which was involved with the Amaila Hydropower project, and this was never disclosed to the Parliament. Yet, in all this time her party was voting against Amaila.
AFC Chairman, Mr. Nigel Hughes, is just the same. He held the position of Synergy Inc.’s Company Secretary. This fact he never disclosed, not even to his party, because when information became public, Mr. Ramjattan at least had the decency of confessing that he was unaware that Mr. Hughes was the firm’s Company Secretary. Also, Mr. Hughes was the lawyer of the foreman of the jury in the Lusignan massacre. He acted as the foreman’s lawyer in a civil case that lasted seven years in the High Court. That matter concluded mere months before the murder trial started. Yet, Mr. Hughes outrageously contended that he did not remember that he represented the foreman, although he acted on behalf of this man for seven years. Mr. Hughes was also implicated in another scandal where he refused to honour his contractual obligations to the owner of Mae’s Secondary School, by passing the title of ownership for the property on which the school stood within the time stipulated in the contract. This caused a bank to foreclose a mortgage on the school’s premises, jeopardising the welfare of dozens of students who were preparing to write CSEC examamnations.
Indeed these are the last set of persons to speak on any matter regarding law. People clearly must not throw stones when they reside in glass houses.
BALRAM SINGH