Dear Editor,
The legal profession in Guyana has produced students of the law, not law students, several of whom have justifiably attained prominence, although fewer can claim to have achieved eminence. I would submit that Mr B T I Pollard, SC can be readily so certified and I take this opportunity to salute him for his enduring urbanity and consummate magnanimity.
However, I am yet to convince myself that his letter to SN of the 11th March, 2013 was not triggered by the consequences of serpiginous senescence. As a former Chief Parliamentary Counsel in the halcyon days of yesteryear and a longstanding member of a Regional Commission of Jurists, his thought processes seem not to have led ineluctably to the conclusions/suggestions about Minister C J Rohee MP and the recommendations of the Linden Commission of Inquiry, respectively. Indeed I was disappointed. For him to impugn the decision of the COI, some members of which are not without acknowledged erudition, experience and eminence, may only lead to division and doubt, given his obvious influence, both professionally and societally. Speaking for myself and having had the benefit of more than a fleeting association with at least four of the Commissioners, I am publicly prepared to break a lance with him on this sensitive occasion. It should be an axiom of commonsense that there must be finality to a controversy if our country is to move forward, without the baggage of uncertainty and angst.
Finally, as I sought to explain in my letter to SN of 28th February, 2013, conventions result from an evolutionary process and derive their vitality from customs and practices. I am prepared to place on record that they do not, and cannot, in any democratic polity, supplant constitutional, statutory or common law principles. They merely serve to supplement any omission in a constitutional imbroglio resulting in a genuine lacuna.
Guyana is in unchartered territory on this issue, given the hybrid character of our peculiar constitution, and I am not satisfied that the Commonwealth’s experiences find a parallel in the manoeuvres of the opposition elements in our National Assembly. I submit that a no-confidence motion of an opposition which attracts no support or abstention from the government side, would and could not lead to a recognisable consequence of a relevant convention.
Yours faithfully,
Charles R Ramson SC
Attorney-General and
Minister of Legal Affairs (rtd)
