Dear Editor,
Recently, protesters were picketing Mr. Hughes asking him to give up defending the accused embattled PPP Senior Minister Mr. Dharamlall. Mr. Hughes in his cool, calm, smiling, refined manner explained that the justice system relies on lawyers to take cases and we have to let the system do its work. Mr. Hughes is probably deserving of a Senior Counsel award as he is an outstanding lawyer. He has taken cases that people would think are controversial defending people charged for rape, murder, election rigging, and serious crimes. I guess if you are in serious doo-doo, you would need a good lawyer, such as Mr. Hughes. I probably would have liked to see this great lawyer fighting for the girl’s interests than to be the attorney for someone accused of a heinous crime. But as has been said, a person is innocent until proven guilty, and lawyers are free to decide what cases they would take. Money matters.
There is another breaking story of another young lady from Essequibo making similar allegations against a PPP Minister. Don’t know if this will change Mr. Hughes’ mind. History has been replete with cases where people were guilty but found innocent. Some did the crimes they were accused of but got away anyhow because they had a good lawyer, the state prepared a sloppy case, witnesses were bought out, victims were paid off to drop the case, evidence was made to be missing, the prosecutor didn’t show up, and as the village people would say, “money pass deh.” Sometimes cases were dismissed due to violation of procedures or on technicalities, and bad people were set free. Not that they were innocent, but because the Judge or Magistrate ruled “not guilty.” So the system really doesn’t work well. The system especially fails poor people fighting against rich, connected people who can massage the system to work for them. You can’t trust the system. There is certainly no “One Guyana” when it comes to receiving justice, or in anything else. There are different strokes for different folks.
I was very, very disappointed with the Neesa Gopaul case where one accused was set free. There were other such cases where rapists and murderers were freed. The law is an ass. So, there is no shortage of lawyers to defend rapists, murderers, election riggers and generally bad people. Lawyers are abundant to defend Exxon and co-venturers. Mr. Glenn Lall could not find many local lawyers willing to take his tax case against Exxon getting tax breaks. Melinda Janki had to get a foreigner – Trinidadian Senior Counsel Seenath Jairam to fight the insurance case against the Environmental Protection Agency and Exxon. Local lawyers wouldn’t touch it with a 10-feet pole, and they stayed far away from the lawyers fighting Exxon. Isn’t that a sad commentary on our lawyers? Where is the moral courage, and where is their outrage about injustice that would touch their hearts to help victims? Where is their nationalism to fight for the best interests of their country against foreign, rapacious corporations? I wish especially that our young lawyers would rise up and stand up for justice with ongoing vigilance.
I have an 88-year-old cousin getting the runaround for 28 years trying to get his National Insurance Scheme (NIS) benefits. They have a year’s contributions missing. It’s hard to find a lawyer to fight the government, but the courageous Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan has agreed to take on this case if the Ministry of Finance does not resolve it. My cousin is so frustrated at the system that he may also ask The Minority Leader of the US House, Mr. Hakeem Jeffries, to intervene with the Guyana Government. President Ali had asked Finance Minister Singh to look into it, so my cousin is waiting for a final answer. (More on this story later).
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall
