Satnarayan Maharaj
The Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha wishes to join the avalanche of tributes and record its profound appreciation and gratitude to the late Sir Fenton Ramsahoye, QC. He, together with Anand Ramlogan, SC, provided protection through legal service to the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha in very difficult times.
Sir Fenton was the attorney general of Guyana from 1961 to 1964 and a member of the Board of Governors of University of Guyana from 1962 to 1964. He understood the plight and predicament of the Hindu community because of the radical racial experience in Guyana where elections were rigged and marked by racial violence that targeted the Indian community. This was a harsh reality.
When the Maha Sabha was denied a radio broadcast licence, we turned to Sir Fenton for advice. We had consulted other senior lawyers who expressed the view that our case was hopeless and doomed to fail because there was no legal “right” for any citizen or organisation to be given a radio licence—this was a matter for the discretion and judgment of the Government.
Sir Fenton was a legal genius with a fertile mind and a sense of legal imagination and creativity that few lawyers possessed. He felt our right to equality of treatment was violated because the PNM Government had awarded its supporter Louis Lee Sing a radio licence within a few days of applying. The Maha Sabha application had long before been approved and recommended. We were left languishing in the queue, waiting in vain whilst Mr Lee Sing's Citadel Limited was able to mount the podium and get the trophy, though it entered the race very late.
Even though we won the matter in the High Court and damages were awarded in our favour, the Maha Sabha was extremely disappointed because our victory did not translate into a radio licence. At a time when there was a proliferation of Christian radio and TV stations that were aggressively targeting Hindus for conversion, the radio licence was of critical importance to the Hindu community. Sir Fenton felt our pain. He said it was unjust and prepared our appeal to the Court of Appeal. Although we won our appeal, the judgment was weak as the local courts did not have the judicial fortitude to order the rampant PNM Government led by then prime minister Patrick Manning, to grant us the radio licence.
No lawyer in the entire Commonwealth had done as many appeals before the Privy Council as Sir Fenton had. The biggest problem, however, was that we had won our case before both local courts and there was an issue as to whether the “winner” could further appeal as the losing party would normally be the one to appeal.
The great legal luminary, Sir Fenton said “this is going to be a historic case and great lawyers are never afraid of losing!” With those words, we marched to the Privy Council in London where Lord Mance ordered that the T&T Government grant us a radio licence. In so doing, the Law Lords found that the Government had misled the Court of Appeal in its attempt to cover its tracks and went on to painstakingly outline the extent of the discrimination we had endured.
Today, we have a radio and television station (Radio and TV Jaagriti) that is able to reach out to the Hindu community nationally and internationally. None of this would have been possible without our legal champion and hero Sir Fenton Ramsahoye. His intervention changed the course of our religious, social and political history and many generations will benefit from his brilliant ground-breaking work.
Sir Fenton was a loyal and dear friend of the Maha Sabha and the Hindu community. His struggles for the poor and oppressed is testimony to his greatness. He was honoured by the Maha Sabha on several occasions and shall continue to be remembered for his compassion and one who was devoted to helping the depressed. At a time when so much is said about lawyers who exploit their clients for high legal fees, we are proud to say that Sir Fenton and his protégé Anand Ramlogan took not a cent from the Maha Sabha for any of the cases they did!
Justice has lost a most passionate and dedicated leader who will be remembered for his selflessness and battles against injustice.
“The great secret of true success, of true happiness, is this: the man or woman who asks for no return, the perfectly unselfish person, is the most successful.”—Swami Vivekananda.
.