Dear Editor,
PLEASE give me some space in your letter columns to share a joke provided by Kit Nascimento via Stabroek News, headlined: “The Private Sector Commission simply stating the facts when it says the President and his gov’t must observe what constitution says on no-confidence motion.”

The good Kit had this so say, “It is a fact that Cabinet is resigned along with the President as head of the Cabinet as required by the constitution and as was confirmed by the ruling of the chief justice.”

Brilliant Kit!! Now help me work this out. They must resign now. All of them. The entire cabinet. If the appeal court overrules the CJ’s ruling, what should happen? Should they be scurrying back to take their offices? Let me inform you Kit. THE CJ IS NOT THE CCJ.

Screenshot this and place it in all the offices of the PPP-PSC. Get that? Now go sit quietly in a corner and let this legal matter take its course as alluded to by the EU and the UN. If you have a pressing urge to speak, try reciting the alphabet.

I guess common sense is not that common. With such comedy from you guys I shall go cancel my subscription to Def Comedy Jam. Let’s look at article 106(6) which the PPP-PSC is getting hung up on.

Article 106 (6): The Cabinet including the President shall resign if the government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.

“Shall” is a modal verb that indicates future tense. It has no definitive timeline. Just simply means it will happen in the future. So if you PPP-PSC happen to see me still looking at Def Comedy Jam, after I said “I shall cancel it” and demand I cancel it immediately, I will not so politely remind them that “shall” is future tense without a definitive timeline. I can do it now. I can do it next 10 years. See my point? The “shall” in the constitution refers to future tense. No definitive timeline. So that garbage that the PPP-PSC is arguing that the Cabinet must resign forthwith as per the constitution makes no sense.That’s simple semantics.

Regards
Dr. Mark Devonish MBBS MSc MRCP(UK) FRCP(Edin)
Consultant, Acute Medicine
Nottingham University Hospital
UK