Latest update May 14th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 02, 2014 Letters
Dear Editor,
I refer readers to Mr. Frederick Kissoon’s Column (Ask Chancellor Carl Singh; ask Attorney Gino Persaud too, K News, May 22, 2014) and (I can’t recall seeing Sherod Duncan in the protest but, K News, May 25, 2014). The combined effect of Mr. Kissoon’s writings is that “the most apathetic set of students came from the Law Department…” and that “law students’ hypocrisy takes two forms, one historical, the other current.”
While there is some truth to Mr. kissoon’s conclusion as would be highlighted in the fore coming submission; in my own defence, I must reject in its entirety this generalisation.
Mr. Kissoon advanced that in 2012 the Law Students did not support or participated in the protest actions dubbed ‘Operation Rescue UG’. As true as this may be, the Civil Rights Activist failed to inform readers that these protest actions transpired at a point in the semester when students-at-law were in full focus on a fast approaching external examination.
If law students miss an examination, their next step is to register for an extra year at the University to complete that course. There is no summer class to retake that course as is offered in other departments; nor can a student go and ask a Lecturer for a ‘make up test or re-sit’ as is the practice in other parts of the campus.
If this escaped Mr. Kissoon’s mind, perhaps Dr Patsy Francis may be of assistance. Dr Francis, who represented the interest of senior staff during those protests, is on record explaining to the media the reasons why Law and Medicine Students did not actively participate in those demonstrations.
However, my support for those who actively engaged the issues that faced the university at that time was unwavering.
Ask then Student leaders Dwayne Edwards and Adel Lilly at which department on Campus they stood the longest and engage conversations that focused on ways of moving the University, and Guyana forward. Ask the Student Welfare Division which student came to the office with solutions built on moving the University forward. Call them up, they know my name.
At the dismissal of Mr. Kissoon, I attacked my Constitutional law Lecturer for teaching me that there is a rule of law when the very institution I am part of will not respect it.
Perhaps it was at this stage that the charge to go forward and make campus life fun, delivered by a sitting Judge on the night of my graduation from one of the nation’s Premier schools of Higher learning, became meaningless. For if I say life at UG over the past three years was fun I will be the biggest liar.
The fact is that the campus is in crisis. A power outage closed operations in some departments during the past week, students continue to be robbed on campus, some classrooms and the library are saturated with water when it rains, the majority of students depend on loans, there is a proposed hike in tuition which government may not subsidise, the Medex office lacks basic drugs, lecturers remain the biggest subsidisers when the monthly stipend they receive is considered, staff continue to complain about the delay in timely delivery of their salaries, the majority of the books at the Library is outdated, the Caribbean Research Library facility has been out of operation for nearly two years, et cetera.
With such issues facing UG, I am convinced that Mr. Kissoon is right in his expectations from the future of the legal profession. It is to this end that Mr. Kissoon is correct.
The law society with its influence on Campus; allowed the situation facing the University and their Department to worsen and did nothing. More could have been done. But this in no way justifies Mr. Kissoon’s generalisation.
But while we can do more, we are being trained in a system that is built upon a rule of law. While passive resistance is the most potent weapon at the disposal of mankind; there are mechanisms in addressing grievances and discontent.
Law Students must respect such mechanisms since they will soon be using legal means to put such in place. While these systems may be slow, they must be respected.
So this is what I have done. In February I wrote the President of the Law Society demanding him to request the Head of the Law Department to address the student body on the issue of law students’ admittance to the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS). This is one mechanism in place which I exhausted to no avail.
I encouraged and signed petitions directed to the President of Guyana among others to establish a Law School in Guyana and for him to make bold efforts in ensuring the acceptance of the graduating class of 2014 into the HWLS or either of the two Law Schools managed by UWI.
I engaged Presidential Adviser Ms. Gail Teixeira at a Commonwealth of Nations occasion at UG, Speaker of the National Assembly Mr. Raphael Trotman and his Deputy Mr. Basil Williams in his capacity as Chairman of the PNC on the above positions and issues affecting us as young Guyanese.
When APNU Leader Mr. Granger attended an interfaith service to commemorate the University’s 50th anniversary, I engaged him on the issue of establishing a Law School and strengthening support for the programme through his leadership of a majority of the Parliament.
I will continue to explore other mechanisms and not to rule out passive resistance to that unreasonable decision by the Counsel of Legal Education as apparently supported by the silence of the Bar Association. My efforts will focus on ensuring the future of this Republic is secured. But the confidence of the law students is in the President of this country and the Attorney General that they will stand by their word and deliver a permanent fix to the plight facing students-at-law.
Kevin Morgan
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May 14, 2024
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