Rowley: Ayers-Caesar/Judiciary issue may reach Parliament

Speaking at Piarco International Airport after he returned from a Caricom meeting in Grenada, Rowley said, “If that is so, it is for office holders involved to bring it to a head and have it dealt with even if it means Parliament (which is on a break) has to come back into Special Session.

“To pretend there is some other way when there is none,” he added, is bordering on a description which he does not want to use. “There is a problem and it has to be addressed. The best way might not be an investigation at this time,” he said.

A Government investigation, he said, would only suffice if it is the best option under the circumstances. However, he said, the Executive jumping to initiate an investigation might only worsen the situation.

On the resignation of Humphrey Stollmeyer and Roger Hamel- Smith from the JLSC, Rowley said he was, “a little surprised”, when he woke up yesterday at 4 am in Grenada, to discover the JLSC, “was not properly constituted and information to this effect had been available since June 22.” When these things happen, he said, they contribute to the public losing confidence in institutions of State and causing institutional paralysis. With the JLSC and Ayers-Caesar matters in the public domain and calls for people to resign from the JLSC, Rowley said, “I would have thought it would have been useful and necessary for the population to be told immediately that this (the resignations) is what happened on June 22 or June 23, and that it comes in effect from June 30.” Had the resignations been made public prior to Thursday, Rowley said, “We could have followed the process without acrimony and without suspicion.” “The suspicion could be completely unnecessary or troubling that something would have been happening. The jobs are hard enough as they are, but we don’t make them more difficult by these unnecessary developments,” he said.

“In our country,” he said, “conspiracy theories come up very easily and we exercise them.” However, he added, “the institutions of State need to be more responsive to public appetite for timely information and full disclosure.”