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Juan Edghill, Shalimar Ali-Hack and Henry Greene: They should resign
Jun 05, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Many times on this page I have written about the devastation of my column schedule because unexpected issues crop up. I read yesterday about the publication of a poll by a Caribbean organisation that gives a possible victory to a coalition in the coming general elections.
Then on Thursday, I noticed an item in which Donald Ramotar claims that the PPP Government consists of a “massive coalition.” Then yesterday afternoon, someone called me to say that in the Chronicle there is an advertisement in which the CIOG is offering scholarships to Muslim students only.
With news like this all over the place, I thought I should shift my focus and identify one of these three developments for publication today. I backed down because if I postponed what I wanted to put on this page today, by the time I returned, my stories would be stale.
There is plenty of time left to analyse Ramotar’s “massive coalition,” and the phenomenal findings in that poll.
First, Juan Edghill. Mr. Edghill has vilified my human rights record by accusing me of being a hired pen. I have faced these kinds of insulations throughout my media career and I answer with my pen while my opponents attack me physically. I will carry on.
A KN colleague asked me to investigate a complaint by a business friend of his that the Chairman of the ERC, Juan Edghill, confronted him in his store, berated him in front of his customers and ordered him to appear in front of the ERC over the issue of some Chinese nationals being refused entry to his store.
I was busy and left the complaint behind. When I came around to it, my colleague was in Trinidad. I e-mailed him asking him to name the store and where it was located. I didn’t hear from him and that was the end of the matter until he returned to Guyana.
During a meeting between the labour constituency and the three ERC Commissioners we always meet (over the years), Edghill in his opening remarks, cited an incident in a store where Chinese persons were discriminated against. I then interrupted Edghill and told the gathering that Edghill left out the part where he went to the defendant’s premises.
In front of those present, including UNDP consultant, Lawrence Latchmansingh, Bishop Edghill chose not to defend himself against my pronouncement that he was at the businessman’s store and had leveled accusations against the storeowner.
I went to Fazia’s Collection on Water Street and interviewed the owner (Terry Anderson) and his wife. A full description was given to me about Bishop’s Edghill’s behaviour in the store.
I believed the man and his wife. I still do. When I was leaving, Mr. Anderson invited me to remove the surveillance camera and examine the footage of Edghill’s presence. I accepted to do that and promised to return with a technician from Kaieteur News. I subsequently ran a column calling on Edghill to resign because he went way, way outside his legal mandate. I repeat my call here – Juan Edghill should resign over the Fazia’s Collection incident. He should be made to.
Secondly, Shalimar Ali-Hack, the DPP. Mrs. Ali-Hack should resign or be made to resign. I became a commentator in 1988. Long before then I knew that media people cannot comment on cases before any court of law. It is called the principle of sub judice. For the DPP to write a published letter in the newspaper about a matter in front of two Full Court judges in which she is involved is unheard of in the CARICOM jurisdiction.
The two judges warned Mrs. Ali-Hack. They should have charged her with contempt of court. What she did was to bring the law into disrepute.
Finally, I repeat my call for the Commissioner of Police to demit office. Here is a symbol of law and order in the Republic and he can address the media and tell them that a politician who is under investigation by the police wrote to the police for permission to leave the country and the police just did not bother to reply.
What is frightening about this aberration is that Commissioner Henry Greene had no qualms in admitting to the nation that the police did not reply to the man whose freedom they held in their hands.
This is indeed a sad country. Edghill, Ali-Hack and Greene will, however, continue to ride tall in their respective saddles.
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