— says assault on judiciary scandalous, must be condemned

ATTORNEY General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, SC, on Saturday took offence at what he called “the reckless and churlish attack on the judiciary” by Attorney Mohabir Anil Nandlall, the PPP front-bencher who lost his appeal against the appointment of Justice (Rt’d) James Patterson as chairman of GECOM.

The Appeal Court last Thursday unanimously upheld the ruling of Chief Justice (ag), Roxanne George-Wiltshire that President Granger’s appointment of Justice Patterson as chairman of GECOM was constitutional; and even suggested that on the first instance of a defective list, the Guyanese leader could have activated the proviso which allowed him to select someone unilaterally.

Another of the judges even went as far as saying that the opposition leader could not have expected the Head of State to choose from a list where “one or two or three persons, as the case may be, are not acceptable to him.”

Thursday’s decision in the Appeal Court has dealt another blow to the opposition’s efforts to overturn the decision. However, Nandlall has taken umbrage with the decision and has stated his displeasure publicly.

“While this latest attack is not surprising, given his penchant to making threats against a media house and other indiscretions, his crude assault on members of the judiciary–three of whom are women–must be roundly condemned,” Williams said in a statement issued Saturday afternoon.

Williams quoted Nandlall’s comments to members of the media, which stated thusly: “First of all let me say that I am not surprised, I am disappointed but not surprised. This is yet another case that shows how far more our judiciary has to mature, because it is a part of a trend. All the cases that are deeply political are decided in a political way and that has to change.” He then followed up with a letter to the press, further castigating the judges.

According to Williams, these statements, when taken with Nandlall’s labelling of the learned Chief Justice George-Wiltshire’s ruling as being adventurous in the Court of Appeal and him “describing two Barbadian Queen’s Counsel who are more senior to him as aliens, aptly sum up this ex-attorney general’s disrespect.”

DISCOURTEOUS
The AG added: “It however has not escaped the attention of the attorney general that Mr Nandlall has over the years been given great latitude by the court and over time has become discourteous and disrespectful, two traits that are often exhibited by the party he represents.”

Williams recalled Nandlall falsely accusing him of threatening to kill a sitting judge, which turned out to be completely untrue. He said despite this, the former attorney general was allowed to escape sanction by the court.

“As attorney general, I fully support objective comments on judgments handed down by the courts; but these must be measured and respectful without seeking to scandalise the court by describing its decision as political and that the judges who made the decision as [sic] immature. This amounts to personal invective and abuse of the judges,” Williams asserted.

He stated that “Mr Nandlall is becoming unhinged and for a man who has been claiming that other people are losing cases, he seems to have suffered a complete meltdown on losing another major case.”

“Perhaps this experience in losing this case regarding the appointment of the GECOM chairman should enlighten him that in the practice of law before the courts, you win some and you lose some.  However, what is very frightening, is the serious deficiency in Mr Nandlall’s psychological framework for him to believe that he will find the courts to rule in his favour despite the plain and literal language of Article 161 (2), that the appointment of the Chairman of GECOM is to be done by the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and not the opposition leader.  Therefore, as head of the bar, I again roundly condemn his behaviour and remain hopeful that the usual commentators and the Guyana Bar Association will see it fit to do same.”