The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I have never seen such a big political turn out for the Opening of the Court of Appeal as happened this year. Not only were the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister in attendance, so also was the leader of the DNA.

I wonder whether anyone can recall a precedent.

I don’t recall that the prime minister or the deputy prime minister found time to attend the opening of the Legal Year for the Supreme Court, the highest Court in our land.

I, and many other observers, believe that the Government used the opening of the Court of Appeal as a stunt – a payback for a political friend.

Could it have possibly been that the PLP political leadership turned out to the Opening of the Court of Appeal as a favour to Algernon Allen, the spouse of the President of the Court of Appeal? Mr Allen has become a favourite of this PLP administration since abandoning the FNM and finding favour in PLP circles after his fall out with the former FNM Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham in 2001. Mr Allen currently serves as co-chair of the much heralded but sadly discredited Urban Renewal 2.0 programme which has thus far achieved little in bringing relief to residents of high crime areas of New Providence.

Of course, the attendance of the county’s political leadership at the Court of Appeal also provided an opportunity for the PLP leadership to sit as spectators as their plans to soften stiff penalties for convicted criminals seemed to garner support from a senior jurist.

Justice Anita Allen is entitled to her judicial view. It is another thing entirely for the political leadership to believe that her views on fixed penalties can serve as excuses for less than efficient administration of the courts, the disorganisation and havoc being perpetrated by the Government in the Legal Department and by private lawyers who manipulate the system to their clients’ benefit.

It seems that the Government is staging a new public relations campaign; this one to convince the public that stiff mandatory sentences are creating the backlog in our courts and hence should be abolished. This would then ease their effort to reduce stiff penalties enacted in 2011 delivering on the PLP promise to convicted persons that, if elected, they would lighten tough penalties.

It is my opinion that the presence of the prime minister and deputy prime minister at the opening of the Court of Appeal Year shows that they are not above politicising the judiciary to achieve their ends. This is sad but also dangerous.

If there should be any truth in what I perceive, it is my opinion that Mr Allen for his part should be ashamed if he is trying to ensnare his wife in his political shenanigans. She is an exemplar jurist and fully entitled to share her views on the laws of our land in the manner that she did. It is unfortunate that she had to share those views before a politically stacked audience.

RESPONSIBLE CITIZEN

Nassau

February 2, 2014