I COULDN’T help but notice that the BAR Association of Guyana has had a renewing, resurgence and re-energising of their collective voices. Gone is the bronze of the discredited organisation and in it their new ebony face. Unfortunately, even with a protracted period of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), their bad habits could not have been remedied. But it was with great anticipation that we welcomed their evolution after being dearly missed for the period 1992-2015, due to a voluntary somnolent state that was prematurely terminated in 2015, after it was telepathically communicated to the snoozing unit that a new captain, APNU+AFC, will be steering the ship.,

As they enthusiastically set out on the legal oversight of APNU+AFC, the cockeyed body declined any apprising of breakdowns of the rule of law which occurred over the 23 years that they were in the narcoleptic state. The then President made it pellucid that he did not share the concerns of the citizenry about the 23 years of crime and mayhem, but more importantly a law- abiding PPP needed no legal oversight from the Bar.

You see, this association of LLBs with a few spatterings of LLMs and definitely no PhDs have been deluded into believing that they run the legal show in Guyana. That is so far from the reality, since the vast majority of quality lawyers stay miles away from that “on-and-off” legal dissociation. And dissociated they are, for they spend all day in that dissociated state, converting their severe internal problems to those of the state. For the psychiatrist will tell you, not with my level of clarity that a dissociated state is real for that patient afflicted by it. Laymen may question why would a patient who is being abused at home present frequently to hospital with ipsilateral weakness of the arm and leg. The fact is that we as humans have evolved and in the process developed complex ways of dealing with psychologically conflicting issues. The aforementioned patient who is painfully experiencing domestic abuse struggles with that psychological trauma which, if left unresolved, can have serious psychological consequences for that patient.

In an attempt not to confront or rather to forget that deep psychological trauma, the patient unconsciously converts it into a physical condition, namely, limb weakness, which is easier for them to deal with. This condition is called a dissociative-conversation disorder which I have abbreviated as dissociated. The fact is that the Guyana Bar Association, of mostly poor quality LLBs are struggling with their own internal matters of membership et al, which is creating a deep inner psychological conflict for the PPP outfit. Struggling to deal with these internal matters, they have taken the route of dissociative-conversion as described earlier.

It is this dissociated-conversion state that provides them the avenue of converting their unresolved internal problems to legal matters of the state that they foolishly believe they can address. But unlike the suffering, abused patient who goes through this process subconsciously with absolutely no insight, the Bar Association’s actions are very much conscious.

For the Bar Association in its statement attempted to take us through some landmarks, as if we as a people have nothing between our ears and need reminders. For we all know that December has 31 days and April 30. For we all know that Parliament should be reconvened within four months of dissolution. We all know that 16+14=30. We all know that Parliament should reconvene by latest April 30th. We all know that election was 45 days ago. Surely, we don’t need the Bar Association to tell us that. Surely, the learned Ret Justice Singh doesn’t need legal lectures from struggling LLBs. Surely, we don’t need an association of LLBs, that specialise in the defence of matters of simple larceny to remind us that we have 14 days to count the ballots or the world will come to an apocalyptic end.

And as these LLBs prepared their statement to be read by the perfidious President, they are strangely deluded into believing that their utterance would be of any consequence. The fact is that not many would give these rumshop debaters and Magistrate Court LLBs the time of the day. But I can’t, since to ignore men and women in poorly fitting suits, drown in their ignorance, would be a dereliction of duty on my part. I do take my responsibility to the Guyanese public very seriously. So now these LLBs with their tunnel vision and clearly empty skulls are screaming about Parliament reconvening, latest 30th April. While a brilliant mind like mine, LLBs note the homophone, recognises that we do not live in a vacuum, it is clear that these LLBs don’t see it that way. The fact that the reason that we are here today, 45 days after the election is multifactoral and unfortunate. That we cannot reverse. The fact is that these unfortunate and embarrassing electoral set of circumstances will need to be addressed when Parliament is reconvened. Guyana needs constitutional reform.

Unfortunately, the likes of Ralph Ramkarran, another LLB, should have addressed this during the nearly 100 years he spent in the PPP, as their legal mind. He procrastinated for decades until he was kicked into ANUG and is now trying to convince us that he is passionate about it.

Guyana also needs electoral reform which should be addressed with some urgency, something the PPP slept on for 23 years. For now that these LLBs found their collective voice, I would humbly suggest that they query why these two important matters were disregarded by Ralph Ramkarran and the PPP?

So the plebeian President “instructed” that Parliament should be reopened by April 30th. Strong statement I must say. I always believe that such muscular statements should be followed by potential consequences if disregarded. Therefore I ask of the Bar Association, if Parliament is not reconvened by April 30th, what will they do? Are we looking at economic sanctions? Will APNU+AFC and their supporters be imprisoned for contempt of the Bar? Or will they just issue another useless statement that most, if not all will ignore? And even as we speak of matters of the law, I trust I can be excused in adding the coronavirus to the mix.

For it has infected over a million and caused over 100,000 deaths thus far and we are months away from the peak. Surely, our legal lackeys are not suggesting that we should not show deference to this killer bug? As a result, I would humbly ask of the LLBs, with April 30th being on the horizon, should the recount be disregarded and President Granger be sworn in? Considering all options, this appears to be the only certain way of cramming our Parliament on the April 30th.

So LLBs, if swearing in President Granger is not an option, then we are only left with the recount, for which we will need the guidance of the emaciated and impotent Bar Association. How many stations should GECOM have? How much time should be allocated to recounting each box? How many persons in total should we have in Arthur Chung Convention Centre(ACCC)? Shall we disregard social distancing? Shall we give those going into the ACCC a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine that your association recently developed in your labs? I concur with you that April 30th is the drop- dead date, hence, I must ask what number of COVID-19 deaths and infections are you willing to have before considering the common sense approach by having a recount in an environment that is safe from COVID-19?

For editor, I am very intolerant with people who speak because they have a vocal cord and a tongue. Mind you, that is all many of them have. If an organisation is to put out a statement on a matter of national interest, then I would anticipate that the statement would view the matter holistically through non-partisan lens. It is for that reason that I am completely befuddled as to the rationale for the Bar Association releasing that statement. What will that statement add to the present situation? How will the statement take the situation forward? The fact is that temporal relationship between their statement and GECOM anticipatory announcement of their decisions on the recount on Friday, lead me to believe that the Bar Association is once again being political. They are clearly attempting to influence the decision of the learned judge. If that is the case, and I strongly believe so, then they should all hang their heads in shame. On the other hand, if they have made that statement for no apparent reason, then I would humbly suggest that they take that time to professionally develop themselves, for Guyana is tired of LLBs and so am I.

Regards

Dr.Mark Devonish