PEOPLE’S Progressive Party Member of Parliament, Priya Manickchand, has conceded that the PPP’s failure to appoint any Senior Counsel after the death of former President Cheddi Jagan was “unjustifiable.”
In a post on her personal page on facebook, the social networking site on which Manickchand has been very active, the former controversial PPP minister wrote that “The appointment of deserving members of the Bar (as Senior Counsel) after an unjustifiably long period where no such appointments (sic) were made…(was) reckless and politically flavoured.”

President David Granger recently announced that nine members of the local Bar will be elevated to Senior Counsel, commonly referred to as “attaining silk.” It is the first time since 1996 that Senior Counsel appointments have been made.
The nine new Senior Counsel announced by President Granger are: Neil Boston, Charles Fung-a-Fat, Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire, Llewelyn John, Rafiq Khan, Vidyanand Persaud, Rosalie Robertson, Claudette Singh and Attorney General Basil Williams.

Manickchand’s belated concession that the PPP failing to appoint Senior Counsel for 19 years, and not having done so under any of the four PPP presidents since the death of the party’s founder- leader, Dr. Jagan, appears unusual. Ms. Manickchand’s concession may also lead to tension within the PPP, as it appears to be a direct condemnation on the non-appointment of senior counsel by her party’s leader and former president Bharrat Jagdeo who is now Leader of the Opposition. Manickchand shares the frontbench in Parliament on the opposition side with Mr. Jagdeo, sitting six seats away from him. PPP opposition MPs have been observed rigidly following party lines, most notably in collectively walking out of the National Assembly on several occasions since the commencement of the 11th Parliament.

In the lengthy post on the issue, Manickchand, also an attorney-at-law, went on to question why the Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar Ali-Hack and Josephine Whitehead, “a long-standing member of the Bar and the soul of Legal Aid in Guyana for at least the last 20 years” were not included on the list announced by President Granger to be elevated to Senior Counsel. Manickchand noted that in her view, Ali-Hack and Whitehead were “sidelined” and labelled the appointment of the new batch of Senior Counsel as a “wet blanket.”