To­day the lawyers of this coun­try at a Spe­cial Gen­er­al Meet­ing will con­vene at the Au­di­to­ri­um of the Gov­ern­ment Plaza to de­cide whether the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (L.A.T.T.) should file a Ju­di­cial Re­view Writ to chal­lenge the de­ci­sion of the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter not to com­mence im­peach­ment pro­ceed­ings against the Ho­n­ourable Chief Jus­tice; and I call up­on all the civic-mind­ed lawyers to at­tend this very im­por­tant meet­ing in or­der to make ob­jec­tive, dis­pas­sion­ate, sen­si­ble and saga­cious in­puts in this cru­cial/im­por­tant con­sti­tu­tion­al mat­ter so that jus­tice can pre­vail for all.

It is now well known to all of us that the coun­try is split along racial and so­cio-eco­nom­i­cal lines on whether the Chief Jus­tice should be im­peached. The lawyers to a great ex­tent form the bul­wark of the in­tel­li­gentsia in our beloved coun­try and should not “trib­al­ize/racial­ize” the is­sue of a Sec­tion 137 tri­bunal.

I re­mind my learned friends that in tak­ing our re­spec­tive oath as lawyers we all swear that we will tru­ly and hon­est­ly con­duct our­selves in the prac­tice of law to the best of our knowl­edge and abil­i­ty and the Laws of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The Laws of Trinidad and To­ba­go state that if se­ri­ous al­le­ga­tions of mis­con­duct are made against the Chief Jus­tice and that there is pri­ma fa­cie ev­i­dence to sup­port the al­le­ga­tions the Prime Min­is­ter must trig­ger a Sec­tion 137 tri­bunal to as­cer­tain whether the al­le­ga­tions are true or not, and if true whether it war­rants his re­moval from of­fice.

In de­bat­ing whether the Prime Min­is­ter should trig­ger the Sec­tion 137 tri­bunal all lawyers are called up­on to bury their sub­con­scious prej­u­dices, be it trib­al, po­lit­i­cal or eco­nom­ic. I have open­ly stat­ed and doc­u­ment­ed that on the is­sue of a Sec­tion 137 tri­bunal there are un­der­ground whis­pers that cer­tain judges of East In­di­an de­scent are un­der­min­ing the Chief Jus­tice with the sup­port of promi­nent East In­di­an at­tor­neys: And on the face of it, it ap­pears that it is on the ground of race that we want the Chief Jus­tice out of of­fice for it is true that the judges and promi­nent at­tor­neys of African de­scent are silent on the is­sue and the out­spo­ken judges and at­tor­neys are East In­di­ans.

The Hon. Prime Min­is­ter has added fu­el to this racial po­lar­iza­tion on the is­sue. He is of the view that there is a sin­is­ter plot by some peo­ple to get rid of the Chief Jus­tice be­cause these peo­ple be­lieve that the Ju­di­cia­ry is avail­able for their use and pur­pos­es.

I call up­on the lawyers not to lis­ten to the Prime Min­is­ter’s dog whis­tle of po­lit­i­cal trib­al­ism and to note that there are very im­por­tant re­spon­si­ble and civic-mind­ed per­sons of African de­scent who are of the view that a Sec­tion 137 tri­bunal should be trig­gered in or­der to ex­on­er­ate or con­demn the Hon. Chief Jus­tice vis a vis the al­le­ga­tions of mis­con­duct made against him.

To name a few of these peo­ple: Pro­fes­sor Sel­wyn Cud­joe, re­tired U.W.I. , Lec­tur­er Win­ford James, Regi­nald Du­mas, Win­ston Far­rel, Kei­th Subero, for­mer C.J. Clin­ton Bernard and Mar­i­ano Browne.

Mar­i­ano Browne is a se­nior mem­ber of the P.N.M. par­ty and a for­mer cab­i­net min­is­ter. He is in­de­pen­dent and fear­less. He be­lieves the coun­try comes first and not self-in­ter­ests.

My learned friends, be­fore you take the vote on whether the L.A.T.T. should or should not move to file a Ju­di­cial Re­view writ against the Prime Min­is­ter for not trig­ger­ing a Sec­tion 137 tri­bunal lis­ten to what Mar­i­ano Browne stat­ed yes­ter­day:

“NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW,” he wrote, and I con­tin­ue to quote him “TT will have nei­ther and In­de­pen­dent, nor a strong ju­di­cia­ry if it is led by a per­son who con­sid­ers him­self above the law and is de­pen­dent on the Prime Min­is­ter for his sur­vival. In­deed, the Prime Min­is­ter has dis­missed the ques­tions sur­round­ing the Chief Jus­tice and those call­ing for a tri­bunal as peo­ple with ‘agen­das”. Se­nior le­gal pro­fes­sion­als of in­de­ter­mi­nate race and ex­ter­nal le­gal lu­mi­nar­ies have all called for an in­de­pen­dent tri­bunal. Even the Prime Min­is­ter’s ex­ter­nal le­gal coun­sel qual­i­fied his opin­ion/ad­vice. What is the Prime Min­is­ter’s agen­da?

The point is that a cri­sis ex­ists in the ju­di­cia­ry, al­most an open re­bel­lion, com­pound­ing the in­ef­fi­cien­cies in the jus­tice sys­tem. Not on­ly does the Chief Jus­tice see him­self as above the law, an­swer­able to no one, but he used his ad­dress at the be­gin­ning of the law term to pum­mel one of the pil­lars of democ­ra­cy; the right of a free press to raise em­bar­rass­ing ques­tions.

I strong­ly urge all lawyers to muster their in­ner strength to be guid­ed and do what they know is right on the is­sue. If in your heart and con­science you know it is legal­ly and moral­ly right to vote yes for is­su­ing the J.R. writ and you vote no, or if you know it is legal­ly and moral­ly wrong to vote no, and you vote yes, his­to­ry will not ab­solve you.

Let your knowl­edge of the law and your spir­i­tu­al and moral val­ues guide you in cast­ing your vote. Af­ter all, if each one of us will have to live with our own con­science for the rest of our lives.

Please vote how­ev­er you de­sire, and let us all con­tin­ue to em­brace and sup­port one an­oth­er as true broth­ers and sis­ters in this ho­n­ourable pro­fes­sion.

Jus­tice for all.

Is­rael B. Ra­jah-Khan SC