Man of the people

In the company of his wife Reema Harry Singh-Carmona, 43, son Christian, 12, and daughter Anura, ten, he will partake of the flat unleavened bread Roman Catholics call Communion, kneel, genuflect and bow before the altar of the Lord. Like any other, he will shake hands and mingle with the congregation at the Assumption Church, Maraval. But a few hours later, at a simple ceremony on Monday, March 18, at Knowsley, Anthony Carmona’s life will change completely. He will assume the mantle of a post like no other. He will become the country’s fifth President.

Who is Anthony Carmona?

Many ordinary citizens have some idea of him. Who could miss the sight of a sitting High Court Judge – the seventh most senior on the High Court bench – opting to use public transport, travelling on the water taxi service from Port-of-Spain, where he lives at Flagstaff, St James, to San Fernando to preside over court cases there? And what of the day he had to renew his driver’s licence (for the many moments when he would dispense with the driver provided him as a judge) by standing in line like any other ordinary citizens for hours at Licensing Office? For sure, those days of moving around so ordinarily will be over come March 18, when Chief Justice Ivor Archie administers the oath to the new Head of State.

Life will also change dramatically for his children. It will be the first time that the official residence of the President will be occupied by a family as young as they are. Christian recently started life at St Mary’s College and Anura is an SEA student at St Monica’s Primary School.

Mrs Carmona, an economist educated in Canada, quit her career years ago to take care of the family. She will now be called upon to go further: having to adapt to the protocols and security that will surround the family. From March 18, whenever they go to church on Sundays, they will all be surrounded by officers and agents. Even when taking Communion, all eyes will be on them.

Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona – he is named after two saints – was born at Los Charros, Palo Seco, on March 7, 1953. He was raised by his parents, Barbara and Dennis Stephen Carmona, and is the eldest of three sons and three girls. When Anthony was five, the family moved to Dalley’s Village, Santa Flora, as his father, Dennis, was then working at Trinidad Petroleum Development – a British oil company dating back to 1918 which was later acquired by British Petroleum (BP).

While the family lived at Dalley’s Village, Anthony attended the Santa Flora Government Primary School. He passed what was then called the Common Entrance exam and got a place at Presentation College, San Fernando. A few years later, the family moved once more to Crest Camp, Fyzabad, where his parents live to this day.

“I knew he would be President one day,” his mother, Barbara, said last week Monday, hours after Anthony was announced as the sole nominee, proposed by the Government, for the post of President. “In fact, I have the dress put aside for whenever that occasion would arise!”

In those early, formative years, education was the central focus in the Carmona household.

“I am a mother of six and my husband and I worked hard with our children,” Barbara said. “I was a housewife all my life, so I had the time to spend with my children and my husband and we tried our best. When my husband came from work, after he took a bath and changed his clothes and he would line up all six of them – three boys and three girls – around the table and go through their lessons with them.” TV was banned in the Carmona household.

“During the week, my children were not allowed to watch TV. They had to stick to their schoolwork,” Barbara said. “On weekends they looked at Lassie or Little House on the Prairie and then we turned off the TV.” Thus, it is no surprise that Anthony’s younger brother, Joseph, is today a doctor while a sister, Cheryl, is an attorney. But it was not a case of all work and no play.

“My husband would pile us up in his car on weekends and take us to different places to get to know the country,” Barbara said. “We had lots of good times.” The children played sports and frequent games of cricket in a neighbour’s backyard. Anthony’s mother said even from an early age, if there was a dispute with friends or family, her son would always insist on hearing both sides. It did not strike her then that this was a judge in the making. But even if they missed the signs that he would be a judge, Anthony’s parents certainly read the signs that he might one day be President.

His father, Dennis, said from the moment Newsday reported that Carmona was tipped for the post alongside another judge, he was confident his son would be the chosen one.

“I said to myself that Tony on top because of his past experience,” Dennis said last week Monday, at the family home at Crest Camp. “He graduated at the top of his class. He’s articulate, he’s brilliant, he’s well spoken, he’s a good person, he’s kind-hearted. He’s a Presentation boy you know. He did well in school.”

Carmona will be declared President by Speaker Wade Mark at a meeting of the Electoral College on March 15. Though President George Maxwell Richards term of office expires on March 17, because that day is a Sunday, the Constitution requires Carmona to be sworn in on March 18, the next working day.

Justice Carmon was last week submitted as the Government’s nominee. There were no other nominees since the Opposition was unable to nominate anyone as an alternative as they did not have the support of all 12 of their MPs (San Fernando East MP Patrick Manning has distanced himself from the process.)

“I am deeply heartened by this nomination,” Anthony Carmona said last week, in his characteristically soft but eloquent voice. “I look forward to making a difference.”

Mrs Carmona last week told Newsday she was humbled by the selection of her husband for President.

“I, like my husband, am very humbled,” she said. “Mr Carmona was already prepared to leave to take up a post at the International Criminal Court and we were to follow after because of the kids’ commitment to school.” She continued, “But I am proud that my country, through the government, would see it fit to consider my husband worthy of being Head of State. I am proud of him.”

Anthony Carmona attended Presentation College from 1964 to 1972. He studied Language Arts at Sixth Form, earning an “A” at Advanced Level examinations. His other areas of study included Latin, Spanish and English Literature – all arguably hints at a future career in public office.

Former classmates described Carmona last week as, “real gentlemanly”; “a deeply religious Catholic”and a chess fan. He was also said to be a school prefect, a member of the choir and a cyclist.

“He had a good all-round record and persons with that kind of record are remembered throughout time,” Presentation College principal Errol Jaikaransingh, who assumed the post long after Carmona graduated, said. “In my two interactions with him, he was very courteous, very helpful to the college and he had remained a presence in the school.” He noted that the school, already boasting two prime ministers (Patrick Manning and Basdeo Panday), will now have a President.

Even those who do not know Carmona personally last week said he is well-liked.

Former Chief Justice Michael de la Bastide said, “I think he is a very likeable person.” Former Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma said, “I think he is a fine candidate, a gentleman of the highest order.” Chief Justice Ivor Archie, who last year praised Carmona’s “sterling” contribution to the Judiciary, warmly congratulated him and prayed for him. The Law Association President Seenath Jairam on Friday sent “warm congratulations”. Peter Clarke, son of former President Sir Ellis Clarke, said, “I think he is an excellent choice and I wish him all the best. I am sure he will do an excellent job.”

Yet, at one stage, it seemed as though Carmona was destined for a life in education as a teacher, as opposed to a judge or President.

After graduating from Presentation College, his first job was teaching at Fyzabad Anglican Secondary School for a year, starting in 1972, at the ripe age of 19. He then travelled to Jamaica where he taught at the St Hughs High School and the Merle Grove High School, at Kingston, for a year before starting university. Carmona’s first degree was in English and Politics, which he took at the University of the West Indies campus at Mona, Jamaica, in 1977. While in Jamaica, he took a well-deserved break from his studies one year to win the Calypso King competition.

(Three years later he would compete at Skinner Park, San Fernando, in the national Calypso Monarch semi-finals alongside the likes of Winston ‘De Original Fosto Himself’ Scarborough.)

Back in Trinidad, Carmona continued to teach, this time at the Palo Seco Government Secondary School from 1977 to 1978. But then, he took a second degree, in law, at UWI’s Cave Hill, Barbados campus in 1981.

From then on, Carmona became a lecturer at the University of the West Indies (UWI), lecturing in the Department of Language and Linguistics as well as tutoring in the Department of Government on the St Augustine Campus. From 1983, he also lectured at the San Fernando Technical Institute in Business Law.

A writer who identified herself as Sharon Solomon, of Marabella, in a letter to Newsday last week, recalled Carmona’s time at the San Fernando Technical Institute. “He would tell us to call him Anthony or Tony. He was our favorite,” she said.

In a mark of his all-round capabilities, while Tony was lecturing at the San Fernando Technical Institute, he was also studying for the Bar at the Hugh Wooding Law School. He qualified in 1983, beginning a legal career that would take him all over the world and then, ultimately, to the High Court in 2004, where he serves in the Criminal Division.

In addition to being a sitting judge (due to resign on March 1) Carmona is also a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and before last week had been due to travel on a ticket to The Hague booked for early March.

Perhaps like his name-sake, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Carmona is known for being thoughtful and reflective while on the Bench and has been outspoken about his ideas. Many will no doubt look at his judicial record for clues as to the policy positions he may take as the next President.

In response to questions from the ICC in 2011 as to why he should be appointed to that court, Carmona had said, “I have been a judge of the High Court for some eight years dealing with complex criminal trials of great national notoriety. I do not run with hounds and the foxes in dispensing justice. My integrity remains unimpeachable. I have prosecuted successfully a Senior Magistrate who was sentenced to two years hard labour for corruption. I exercise my responsibility without fear or favour.”

Most recently, Carmona presided over the murder trial in which Marlon King was convicted of killing his stepdaughter, Amy Annamunthodo. He sentenced King to hang on March 2, stating, “Marlon King, the sentence of the court upon you is that you be taken to a lawful prison, and to a place of execution, and that you suffer death by hanging. And may the Lord have mercy on your soul.”

In 2006, Carmona was the judge assigned to hear a bail application filed on behalf of former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday in relation to corruption allegations. He granted Panday bail pending an appeal of a conviction, which has been since quashed.

“Mr Panday cannot access, in prison, the constant medical attention, drugs and monitoring he needs from a trained cardiologist, given the fact that he is a heart patient that also suffers from diabetes. He could suffer a sudden heart attack despite receiving extensive medication,” Carmona ruled. “The court views with great disquiet that the Prisons Service cannot provide facilities for the management of a condition that affects a great portion of society.”

In sentencing one matter in 2004, Carmona sent a message to men, telling then to put down their guns and focus on love.

“The only weapon you must use from now on is love,” he said. In another case, he warned against men having sex with under-aged girls. In 2011, he called for a new criminal offence of knowingly infecting someone with HIV.

When he is sworn in on March 18, Carmona will be 60 and will become one of the youngest Presidents ever (the youngest remains Sir Ellis Clarke who became President at the age of 58.) His decision to accept the post has resulted in him giving up his appointment to the ICC.

Before serving as a judge, Carmona served as a prosecutor at both the national and international levels for some 21 years. He worked at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Trinidad and Tobago, from 1983 to 2000, where he attained the posts of Assistant DPP, Deputy DPP, and also served as Acting DPP.

Among his more notable cases in relation to this role are the first successful prosecution in the British Commonwealth of Senior Magistrate Patrick Jagessar for corruption and the first successful prosecution at Court of Appeal of Farouk Ali, a Justice of the Peace, for corruption.

From 2001 to 2004, Carmona held the post of Appeals Counsel in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). He has reportedly stated that during this time, he still maintained a home in Trinidad. He was recruited to the Judiciary by former Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma in 2004.

Long before his appointment to the ICC (he was elected to that court in late 2011), Carmona served as a Legal Adviser in criminal law to President Arthur NR Robinson on issues relating to the ICC and participated in meetings of the Preparatory Committee on the establishment of the ICC.

Carmona last week said if declared President on March 15 – which is now a virtual certainty – he would seek to change things.

“I endeavor to make a difference, for it is imperative to position ourselves as leaders in the community, to inspire those in our society so that they can make a difference to the lives of all,” he said. “We must begin with our neighbours.” Just as his own life is about to change, perhaps even more changes are in store from the next President.