Brigadier Joseph for Crime Unit Head? — Inconclusive

THE EDITOR: The recent appointment of Mr Peter Joseph to head a “Special Unit” to fight crime is curious to say the least. Here’s why: Just two months ago many citizens of El Socorro, San Juan complained bitterly that they were attacked, assaulted and beaten by several soldiers some of whom were in an official army vehicle. The news on TV created such an uproar that Mr Manning ordered Mr Joseph to conduct an enquiry and report within 48 hours. Two days later Mr Joseph handed in his report which was a single word “Inconclusive.” Not satisfied with that Mr Manning then asked the police to conduct their own enquiry and report to him in four days.

The police simply decided that if Mr Joseph with a few hundred soldiers could not identify the attackers in his service then how could the police do better than Mr Joseph? Accordingly in the end they too handed in a report which contained one word “inconclusive.” End of the matter; the El Socorro residents had to take their licks and suffer no redress. Again a month ago the news-papers reported that the front door of the St James branch of FCB (Government Bank if you please) was smashed by a soldier who behaved in a disorderly manner and who was apparently annoyed because he found the bank closed and he was unable to do business. Sure enough the TV showed a picture of the broken front door which had to be boarded up and being a Friday, the bank lost about one hour of its afternoon business as the front door had to be repaired before the bank could open for business.

The TV news also showed many soldiers moving around hustling people away and at least one Army truck parked nearby. The soldiers were armed and many persons were clearly frightened. Again Mr Joseph was required to investigate and again his report was “inconclusive.” Again the police reported the single word “inconclusive.” Thus up to this day the soldier who committed this act of what clearly was one of malicious damage has not been identified, caught, charge or tried and this is so despite the fact that the security guards on duty at the bank at the time came face to face with the offender. Yet to this day no one has been charged for that damage. Surprised? Not really. You see the “inconclusivity” precedent had been set at such a high point that it was easy to follow with no fear of controversy. Remember? Just over four years ago then prime minister Mr Basdeo Panday submitted to the President for appointment to the Senate the names of seven persons either all or most of whom had contested the preceding General Election and lost. The President refused despite the fact that not only did he not have the option to refuse but legally he was obliged (read bound) to comply with the request of the Prime Minister. After all it is a political decision with which the Prime Minister would have to live or die.

According to reports the President believed that the appointments were illegal since the appointees had been unsuccessful at the Elections. What utter rubbish. One does not have to be a lawyer to realise that the Prime Minister must be given as wide a section of the population as possible for the selection of persons to run the government and that it is so especially in a small country like ours. The Prime Minister the Government and the country suffered great embarrassment both at home and abroad by the act of the President. Thus to put an end to the embarrassment of this country (and the Caribbean) the finest legal brains got together and got themselves invited to lunch with the President but really intended to give him a simple message agreed by them all. “Please appoint the Senators as you are causing great embarrassment to the country by your refusal to do so.” The legal team included two former Presidents Sir Ellis Clarke and Noor Hassanali (JA). The others were Mr Tajmool Hosein QC, and the Honourable Justice Telford Georges. I do not need to set our heights to which those legal luminaries have  ascended, but I can say as an attorney-at-law with experience of knowing closely all the lawyers involved, including the President, I can safely say without fear or contradiction that compared with the four, the President is in the position of a first-year law student and yet at the end of the visit the President action of taking the legal advice and backing off gracefully (as he had to do later) he hid behind the single word, you guessed it, “inconclusive.”

ATTA K O KUJIFI
Attorney-at Law