Guyana Observer News

Freddie Kissoon

Let me say unambiguously before this essay gets into the main consideration that as an opinion-maker, I believe Magistrate Robertson-Ogle should be relieved of her job. Speaking as a citizen, I believe nothing farcical, cynical or insensitive must be shown towards the freedoms we are entitled to and that inhere in natural law by people in authority, be it a head of state, a soldier, a judge, an organisation head.

Freedoms of the modern world were not given on a platter, our ancestors fought for them.

Whether it is small Barbados, the African continent, the Europeans nations or African Americans, freedom, justice and equality came down to the modern world through centuries and centuries of the struggle of brave men and women to live in happiness and in the control of their own destiny.
No historian is worth his/her salt if he/she cannot see that the efforts of Martin Luther King have directly led to America’s reconciliation with itself when it comes to race relations, thus the success of Barack Obama.

In this country, people’s freedoms are contemptuously tossed aside as if sacred concepts like truth, justice and liberty are ephemeral values that just come and go like the morning sun. The victims in almost 99 percent of these situations are the poor and powerless.

In my long years as a newspaper columnist, I have done quiet a long list on the state of the judiciary in Guyana. If any President in the future is going to leave a legacy that will make him a permanent memory, it will be his/her efforts to make Guyana’s judiciary an institution that works for this nation and that this country can have faith in.

Several articles of mine have critically assessed the competence of many Chief Magistrates. I wrote to Chief Justice Aubrey Bishop more than fifteen years ago (I think) about the conduct of then Chief Magistrate, Paul Fung-a-Fat. I see former Chief Magistrate Juliet Holder-Allen making the news about being victimized. I am not going to discuss the merits and de-merits of her story.

If the Judicial Service Commission did her a wrong it must be righted. But how short are our memories. I had cause to write about this magistrate over many of her egregious decisions.

Yes indeed how short our memories are. When Yohance Douglas, the UG student was shot and killed by police, as the demonstrators moved along Sherriff Street, they passed the residence of Mr. Fung-a-Fat. Perhaps Mr. Fung-a-Fat was moved at the anti-racist chants he heard from the UG students.

The next day he penned a letter to the newspapers denouncing the treatment of African Guyanese by state authorities. As if this former magistrate’s record was not known, how many south Georgetown youths didn’t he send to jail for petty criminalities that probably destroyed their lives? How many Rastas had he sent to prison, and for what? Possession of a joint that is legal in Holland and other white (yes, white) countries. The same can be said of Ms. Holder-Allen.

Enter Magistrate Robertson. I am truly disgusted with the robotic reaction of this Magistrate to the request for bail. There is nothing, I repeat, nothing in law that says bail is a non-entitlement.

The Narcotics Act does not do away with bail. There is a provision for special circumstances. The acting Chief Justice Chang has granted bail to a murder accused. Magistrate Robertson has to be incompetent not to know that bail cannot be refused if evidential information is absent on reasons for its denial.

If there is no proof that the accused will tamper with witnesses or flee the jurisdiction, then bail must not be withheld. Any magistrate that rejects a bail application on the basis that the act for which the person has been charged is prevalent is ignorant of the law and therefore should not be on the bench.

There is no such law that directs a judicial authority to refuse bail because of the frequency of the crime in question.

In a situation in which the police and Magistrate Robertson should be ashamed of themselves, a young man allegedly caught in a sexual act with a calf at Mahdia was actually charged. Then came the obnoxious decision by the magistrate; she denied bail.  Could this Magistrate tell us why? She cannot. She has a robotic reaction.

I am currently looking at a particular situation on this Magistrate that may cause me to write to the Judicial Service Commission. This Magistrate has a flippant attitude to freedom. She should be removed from the judiciary.

Where is the Bar Association? Does such a thing exist?