PNCR Leader Robert Corbin has agreed to meet President Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday to resume consultations on the appointment of the Chancellor of the Judiciary and Chief Justice.
Friday, marks one month since they held preliminary talks on the issue and two years after the original consultations had lapsed.
Corbin’s letter agreeing to meet to the President, which was copied to the media, complained about an inference made by Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) Dr Roger Luncheon with regard to Corbin’s “unavailability” to meet the President to resume consultations.
Corbin also detailed all the steps that had been taken with regard to the consultations since the former Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Desiree Bernard resigned to become a judge in the Caribbean Court of Justice in April, 2005. This included the PPP/C using its majority to pass Bill 19 of 2007, “a modified form of [the High Court Amendment Bill of 2005, which was not passed] that gave the Chancellor the right to give general or special direction to the Chief Justice.”
Corbin said that on his return to office yesterday after a week-long visit to Brazil, which the President was aware of, he was greeted with a “flurry of letters” inviting him to continue consultations on the appointments.
“I reject the inference contained therein, i.e., that I have failed to be available on previous occasions,” Corbin said. He added that since they resumed the talks on October 29, “which you for more than two years adamantly refused to continue, we have been in regular communication and you are fully aware of the circumstances which prevented either of our schedules to permit another meeting.”
It appeared, he said, that Jagdeo had not briefed Luncheon, or that the HPS was being deliberately provocative. The November 15, date proposed had clashed with a sitting of the National Assembly and on that date, too, he had to deal with matters concerning the Guyana Labour Union that required his attention.
He said Friday November 16, was inconvenient for Jagdeo because he was scheduled to attend a Cabinet retreat in Berbice. The following week, the President had to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Uganda and Corbin was out of the country at the same time. So they agreed to meet on their return.
Corbin said that the letters and “belated effort, however, will fool no one.” It was now public record that since their meeting in April 2005, and despite constant reminders, press statements and a recent letter of July 8, 2007, to which he has received no response, “you adamantly refused to continue consultations on the appointment of a Chancellor and, if necessary, a Chief Justice, until your invitation for consultations in October 2007.”
The timing of the October 2007 invitation, he said did not escape his attention since it was public knowledge that his nominee for the substantive position of Chancellor and subsequently acting Chief Justice, Justice Claudette Singh, was to demit office at the end of October.
“The recent ruling by Justice William Ramlal, which affirmed the constitutional position I had outlined to you since 2005, must have also caused you to re-consider your position and stimulated this newfound activism after your repeated failure to honour the letter and spirit of the constitution,” he said.
The issues, which Corbin said he had proposed on July 8, for consideration, included the withdrawal of Bill No 19 of 2007 (High Court Amendment Bill); scheduling an urgent formal meeting with an agreed agenda to seek consensus on the appointment of a Chancellor and in the event of a disagreement concerning a substantive permanent appointee to either position, the agenda should provide for discussion concerning acting appointments; and at that meeting they should share with each other the facts which form the basis of the selection of the nominees, and the appointment of no one candidate should be regarded as written in stone.
Finally, he had suggested that a “spirit of consensus-seeking should prevail and the views of persons and organisations consulted by either party should be made available to the other confidence”.
In his letter yesterday, Corbin assured Jagdeo that he would continue to take his constitutional responsibility seriously and would be available to meet him to continue “these belated consultations at your proposed time on Friday, 30 November 2007.”
