Whether or not there was a con­spir­a­cy to pass Clause 34 of the Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Jus­tice (In­dictable Pro­ceed­ings)?Act 2011, some­one has to go. This is the po­si­tion of In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Rolph Bal­go­b­in dur­ing Thurs­day's Sen­ate de­bate on the clause which was lat­er re­pealed.

Bal­go­b­in, who did not favour re­peal­ing the clause, said some sen­a­tors had raised con­cerns in de­bate of the par­ent bill. "To re­peal this, al­most in as much haste as we pro­claimed it, might ap­pear to a rea­son­able per­son to be an op­pres­sive thing to do. "If the im­pres­sion that we have giv­en is that a man with mon­ey can cheat the sys­tem, then I think that that is some­thing that needs to be ad­dressed and ad­dressed as quick­ly as pos­si­ble. I do not think that we will have done that by re­peal­ing Sec­tion 34. I am not in favour of that."

Say­ing the sit­u­a­tion was a "cri­sis of lead­er­ship and gov­er­nance more than one of trust," Bal­go­b­in added: "Peo­ple no longer trust any gov­ern­ment. I think this has gone well be­yond healthy scep­ti­cism now. I re­mem­ber post-1990 where there would be ru­mours that the Ja­maat al Mus­limeen would come out and take over Port-of-Spain.

"You can call 47 cas­es or 37 or 25, every­body is fix­at­ed on Mr. Gal­barans­ingh and Mr Fer­gu­son. The ar­gu­ment is you have a con­spir­a­cy to steal a bil­lion dol­lars. I have no idea if they are guilty or they are in­no­cent. My view is that they ought to have their day in court. They should have that right. If they are in­no­cent then they should be proven to be in­no­cent and freed be­cause their char­ac­ters would have en­dured the stain of a decade of al­le­ga­tions."

Bal­go­b­in said the DPP?had con­tra­dict­ed the Jus­tice Min­is­ter on the is­sue of con­sul­ta­tion on the clause. "You have two very se­nior men who are re­spon­si­ble for the ad­min­is­tra­tion of jus­tice in this coun­try, hav­ing a very pub­lic po­si­tion that is an­tag­o­nis­tic to­wards each oth­er. Not on an is­sue of law, not on an is­sue of in­tel­li­gence, not on a tech­ni­cal is­sue, but on an is­sue of hon­esty which I sup­pose will be fun­da­men­tal for the ad­min­is­tra­tion of jus­tice," Bal­go­b­in said.

"The sug­ges­tion that there is a con­spir­a­cy by peo­ple in the Gov­ern­ment to have these le­gal mat­ters fail, I think is a very se­ri­ous mat­ter. If it is true, some­one has to go. If it is false, some­one al­so has to go. So ei­ther way some­one has to go," he said.