Outrageous magistrates, a frightened Bar Association and the piper

AUGUST 6, 2014 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

In this world, try to be honest with others, but most of all be honest with yourself. Then live your life as you see fit. Don’t be bothered with the unpleasant things others say once they are not paying you to sing. There are good people left in this country that will come to your rescue when in need. An eminent person that does not get involved in politics and who runs a popular restaurant in Georgetown told me that he was about to bring food for me and Mark Benschop when we were locked-up for three days on frivolous traffic offences. There are many more like him. I couldn’t be bothered with the attitude of Mr. Mike Mc Cormack of the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) towards me. After several criticisms in these columns over the years of a defunct GHRA, including the thirty-odd years Mr. Mc Cormack has been its head, the GHRA was perhaps the only organization that was silent when my UG contract was terminated. Obviously, it had to do with those criticisms. But why worry. There were many who gave me support. And will continue to do so. The GHRA has resources and a huge office, but you never ever hear from these people in a country that is overflowing with repugnant and abominable forms of violations coming from not only the state, but corporate power and unconscionable employers. Most times I read about Mc Cormack in the media it is about his status as a rugby administrator, not as a human rights advocate. If we had a functioning human rights body, Leonard Craig would not have had to defend himself when he took Digicel before the Public Utilities Commission and won. If we had a functioning human rights watch group, the horrible, horrendous and hell-raising things our mediocre magistrates get away with would be confronted and exposed. You read about the things these magistrates do and you wonder if we are at the movies rather than living in a real country. As soon as a magistrate opens his/her mouth, the bail begins from a hundred thousand and up, and for hardly dangerous acts. If the police charge you with six counts of theft, the bill is a hundred thousand for each count. The magistrates are filling up the Camp Street remand with unreasonable bail impositions. What is appalling is that these magistrates know that there is no watchdog out there to check them, so they say and do the most unreasonable and unconscionable things. Read the newspapers on the pronouncements of Guyana’s magistrates. One magistrate recently told an accused he cannot have bail because he has no legal representation. I cannot recall her name or else I would have named her. Which law school this woman came out of? Since when does the granting of bail depend on the presence of a lawyer? I read where a lover’s quarrel ended up with one party charged for stealing the other’s stuff worth half a million dollars. The things were recovered, yet bail was put at $100, 000. Why not put the man on minimal bail. He didn’t maul anyone. On the contrary, we have a citizen that allegedly shot at GRA officers, not with an arrow and bow, but with actual guns. The man was assigned $350,000 bail. Maybe this gentleman has political connection or is rich. Only poor citizens are victims of the brutal side of Guyana’s magistrates. So where does this leave the Bar Association? If anything is a caricature in Guyana, it is the Bar Association’s relation with the judicial system. How can lawyers criticize incompetent magistrates and judges when they earn their income appearing in front of these people? The High Court is now hearing libel writs filed around 2004. That is ten years ago. Norris Witter of the TUC and I appeared before Justice Harnanan last week to answer separate libel writs filed eleven years ago. Yet a libel writ filed in September 2010 went to trial in July the next year. That was then President Jagdeo’s affidavit against me and this newspaper. I wrote three times and I am writing it again – if Justice Ian Chang makes the CCJ, I will travel to Trinidad to protest. I am not sure I support the CCJ in front of the Privy Council anymore. I interviewed a lawyer about what Magistrate Judy Latchman did to his client. He was quick to say; “Freddie, don’t quote me.” A West Coast magistrate has his own church. The man is a preacher. A man of the cloth. A man of God. Heaven help this nation!