SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

For­mer pres­i­dent of the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (LATT) Mar­tin Daly SC says Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley must put aside petu­lance af­ter he was ad­vised to re-ex­am­ine the ma­te­r­i­al be­fore him in­volv­ing Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie.

Daly said the PM must “look at it with­out any nar­row po­lit­i­cal per­spec­tive” and re­con­sid­er it with an open mind.

Daly’s com­ments came hours af­ter Row­ley was or­dered to re­con­sid­er his de­ci­sion to re­ject LATT’s call to im­peach Archie.

High Court Judge Vasheist Kokaram made the or­der as he par­tial­ly up­held the LATT’s le­gal chal­lenge against Row­ley’s de­ci­sion.

Kokaram ruled that Row­ley made an er­ror by con­clud­ing that the as­so­ci­a­tion’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to mis­con­duct al­le­ga­tions lev­elled against Archie was in­flu­enced by the Op­po­si­tion.

Speak­ing on the Morn­ing Brew yes­ter­day, Daly said it was a “very im­por­tant vin­di­ca­tion of the in­de­pen­dent thought and ac­tion in our coun­try.”

He said the on­ly rea­son why the judge went against the prime min­is­ter’s de­ci­sion not to pro­ceed against the chief jus­tice un­der Sec­tion 137 “is that he per­ceived there was some po­lit­i­cal plot and some link be­tween the Law As­so­ci­a­tion and the Op­po­si­tion.”

Daly said it was wrong to say that those who felt there was a prob­lem with the CJ could not think for them­selves and “we were at the hand of pup­peteers with the Op­po­si­tion.”

Daly viewed this as of­fen­sive.

“I per­son­al­ly take great ex­cep­tion be­ing told that I am in the hands of pup­peteers. I was out in the front of this is­sue for a very long time. I have my own reser­va­tion about how the Law As­so­ci­a­tion does things. The fact is they have done this coun­try a very great ser­vice...a great per­son­al cost to the ac­tors in this which every­body in the po­lit­i­cal field is try­ing to tar­nish.”

No one, Daly said can com­pel the PM to do what LATT wants which is to trig­ger 137.

Daly said in essence, Kokaram ad­vised Row­ley to go back to all the ma­te­r­i­al be­fore him and “look at it with­out any nar­row po­lit­i­cal persepc­tive” and re­con­sid­er it with an open mind.

He said Row­ley must put aside any inklings of petu­lance.

Daly said hope­ful­ly Row­ley will rise to the oc­ca­sion and sen­si­bly “con­sid­er the fact that not one of these pieces of lit­i­ga­tion brought by the Law As­so­ci­a­tion has any­thing but be­ing suc­cess­ful on the part of the Law As­so­ci­a­tion.”

Daly de­scribed the mat­ter as a se­ri­ous pub­lic is­sue. He added Kokaram was right to say that there are no win­ners or losers “ex­cept the coun­try, of course. The longer this goes on and the longer the chief jus­tice is shield­ed from prop­er ac­count­abil­i­ty the worst it is for the rep­u­ta­tion of the ju­di­cia­ry.”

Daly said few in­di­vid­u­als have the “bel­ly” to speak frankly to au­thor­i­ty.

“So the prob­lem is not go­ing to go away. It must be dealt with ma­ture­ly.”

With the mat­ter back in the hands of the PM, Daly said Row­ley has to think things over and give a de­ci­sion “with rea­sons. He can’t just dock out of it by say­ing it is a UNC plot. He can’t dis­miss it as a nar­row po­lit­i­cal is­sue.”

Daly said we must have some mech­a­nism where com­plaints against the CJ can be re­solved.