Dear Editor,
One would have thought that following Nigel Hughes’ response to then President Bharrat Jagdeo following the latter’s attack on him during the last elections campaign, the administration would have recognized that to attack Hughes is an endeavour best avoided. Then, Mr Hughes had rebuked President Jagdeo on numerous scores. One is worthy of recall.
“His Excellency’s statements about the considerations for the award of silk have considerable implications on the independence of the judiciary and they have been noted.”
Most recently we saw another typically shallow (politically motivated?) attack on Mr Hughes. This time it was via the Guyana Chronicle which is unable to disrobe itself from the cloak of partiality and bias, most evident in that widely condemned racist editorial. And as sure and inevitable as the morning sun casts its rays upon the earth, Mr Hughes has caused this cheap assault to backfire with no small humiliation to the administration.
A most telling excerpt from the attorney’s recent press release:
“On today’s date Harvest through its Attorneys at law wrote to the Commissioner General asking if he could explain his decision to waive taxes for one taxpayer for sums in excess of $70,000,000.00 when other taxpayers of a different hue must suffer a different fate for the same taxes. While he is at it, the Commissioner General may wish to explain whether he has the same enthusiasm for collecting taxes from the Office of the President for certain contract employees and special advisors whose taxes appear not to have been remitted to the GRA. We ask for no special privileges just equal rights and equal application of the law to all.”
It is quite an enviable list that Hughes has assembled. First, the issue of the independence of the judiciary under this administration; second, the administration’s treatment of Afro-Guyanese with regard to diplomatic postings under the tenure of the former president; third, initiating through public pronouncement, the now formal no confidence motion in the Minister of Home Affairs; and now, the questions surrounding the independence of the Guyana Revenue Authority.
One wonders whether the administration will have finally been convinced that when it comes to parrying with Hughes it is woefully out of its depth.
Yours faithfully
Imran Khan
