Melinda Janki and the rule of law

Apr 14, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – I am embarrassed for the Attorney General of Guyana, Hon Anil Nandlall, SC, MP.  Scalding is not what Melinda Janki delivered, but more.  Slashing and stripping are not what she placed in the public domain, but so much more.  Guyana’s chief man of the law now stands as a soaked and sorry figure.  But this is greater than him.  It is about the majesty of the law and how it transcends mortals, including the kingly, be such a person a president or a prime minister or a political prince of the realm.

In a statement glinting of almost epic sweep, Ms. Melinda Janki, international attorney, a past worker for oil super majors, an activist and a citizen stood as a towering Guyanese woman that reduces the men who lead this land to the level of midgets.  The law is supreme, and not some toy that can be promised or gifted to a foreign partner, or any other for that matter, by anyone.  Its deliberations in the realms of jurisprudence that result in uninfluenced and sagacious interpretations reinforce its blindness, its evenhandedness, regardless of the circumstances.  Regardless of the ambitions and commitments of those who may seek to misuse its pristine magnificence for the odious offal of politics gone all wrong, of its leading practitioners in government mesmerized by the addictive force of power.  Power by any means.  Power at all costs.  Power, notwithstanding what of Guyana, how much of it and its peoples, must be bartered.  The law is transcendent over all of those so puny and so fallibly human endeavors.  Thanks are owed to Ms. Janki and I extend it generously.

It would be my grandest duty to direct the same unqualified gratitude to the honorable attorney general, this noble Guyanese son, Anil Nandlall, Esq.  He is not a shade less wise today than yesterday.  But he is conspicuously less energized, derisively pathetic in the delivery of his obligations to his president, and foremost to the Guyanese people.  From president to prime minister to vice president, servants of no special standing they all are.  So, too, is Mr. Nandlall, to eliminate any ideas that may percolate to the contrary.  From Excellency to past Excellency to any longing to be a future Excellency over Guyana, I have this simplest of messages: all are bond servants to the people.  This little scribble is part of that bond.

Inform President Ali, Hon. AG Nandlall: do not dictate to the people.  Relate to them.  Do not subjugate their hopes; propagate their rights. Do not litigate against them; be a legate for them.  The foreign oil companies have foisted an undeclared war against the Guyanese people.  President Ali, VP Jagdeo, and AG Nandlall must be part of the counterattack.  Not in service to their political ambitions, to their economic calculations, whatever such may be.  They must be about concentrating all their energies in service to the prudent trusteeship over what has been vested in their hands.  Do not raise hands against Guyanese to suffocate the objections, to stifle the disappointments.  Instead, be of one head to take the fight to Exxon and its axis of exploitation and wring from them what enhances this country and every citizen.

The law should not be reduced, Mr. Nandlall, to the whoredom of judge shopping, of corporate guaranteeing, of leadership interfering and camouflaging.  I would never believe that a man of the stature of Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, MP, could be a silent endorser of any such calumnies.  Nor would I ever imagine that he could be a quiet subscriber of what strips Guyanese of their inheritance, denudes of the destiny that is due to each one of them.  Maybe somebody else, but definitely not the AG.  I am struggling to raise my hand to complete this moment of servanthood.  Yes, it has fallen that far, when I consider the range of leadership atrocities, the loathsome political quests to find judicial openings and conclusions that please those who ravage all that is alluring in this land. Where is Mr. Nandlall?  The man, the citizen, the attorney general?

Attorney Janki reminded AG Nandlall that the government is not above the law.  Neither is anyone of the sawdust Caesars and tin pot Bonapartes in Guyana.  To repeat from before: the PPP Government is not the State.  And President Ali is not the nation.  The nation is sabotaged and shredded when there are political schemes that endanger the people, and the AG is silent.  When the judiciary is slow; perhaps, even a shade slippery, if merely sloppy.  No sovereignty of contract can ever supersede the sovereignty of the people.  No foreign entity, not even a superpower of the celebrated (or notorious) standing of Exxon, should be allowed to determine, nay dictate, what rulings it will comply with, and which one it will seek to dilute, if not vanquish.  Whether it is President Ali in front, or whoever is directing the orchestra in the background, AG Nandlall must draw his line: King John died centuries ago.  Exxon must not be allowed to push Guyanese back into serfdom.  The law is clear; so is that ruling of Justice Sandil Kissoon.  No president, no vice president, no attorney general could be so low, so lacking in patriotic fire, manly valor, that the side of Exxon is taken, and Guyanese are surrendered to an existence as hostages.

Now I return in time to the 1960s South Africa.  From the hills and mines echoed the haunting lyrics of Miriam Makeba’s, and the exploitation of her people, the wretchedness of their tortured spirit.  For those who side with foreign companies, listen to cherry picked lyrics.  Be intellectually honest for once and see if this is not Guyana.  From Makeba’s a Piece of Land:

“When the white man first came here from over the seas

He looked and he said, this is God’s own country….

Now the white diggers were few and the gold was so deep

The black man was called ‘cause his labor was cheap…

Some people now say don’t you worry

We have kept you a nice piece of reserve territory

But how can a life for so many be found

On a miserable thirty percent of the ground?

From Makeba to Melinda, South Africa to Guyana.  Thirty percent or two percent, the times don’t change.  Apartheid was the law.  Now contract law is the deity.  Perhaps, Attorney General Anil Nandlall may have something different to tell Guyanese someday coming soon.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• Attorney General of Guyana, GHK Lall, Hon Anil Nandlall, Melinda Janki, MP, SC

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