This time around, the announcement concerns the establishment of a group of expert and concerned citizens, whose mission would be to advise the Minister on any number of issues germane to the Judiciary.
Like every body else, we would very much like to see such a Commission established, and put to work to make things better. But, like others who have been taken down this path before, we are quite sceptical about the prospects ahead for the Judiciary, and for another Commission.
There is, at this juncture, no end of irony in the current situation. There are many lawyers who complain bitterly about the results of an accumulation of neglect, on the part of successive administrations. Indeed, while in opposition, the current Attorney General was most fulsome in his criticisms of then standard operating procedures regarding the role and function of the judiciary. He is today on the receiving end of a barrage of criticisms, some of them coming from lawyers and other professionals in the Attorney General’s office. Others now come from the Bar Association, and so-called ‘ordinary’ Bahamians.
What is particularly galling about the current situation is that so much more was expected of politicians, who boasted that they could and would do better. Our view is that all things considered, the Executive branch is today in serious breach of its obligations to the Judiciary. This branch of government, like media, is just too important in the overall scheme of things to be left to the wishes and whims of whomever.
The Christie administration would today do itself and the Bahamian people a world of good, were it to heed the cries and calls of the likes of Bar President Mr. Wayne Munroe and Chief Justice of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, Sir Burton P.C. Hall. This does not require the creation and launch of a Commission. In the instance of the Chief Justice, it is clear that his office needs to have clear and sufficient access to money and other resources, needed to assist officers of the court in carrying out their duties.
There is something egregiously wrong in a governmental system, where one branch of the system can starve another of vital resources. At another level, something must be seriously wrong with a situation where justice is denied citizens because of systemic flaws like the ones identified by Mr. Munroe and Sir Burton. Yet again, working under the rubric that ‘justice delayed, is justice denied’, something is dreadfully out of whack when citizens searching for justice and their rights, are denied them, because the Judiciary has been staved of needed resources.
As we see it, then, the Christie administration has to do better than call forth another Commission. Instead, what is needed is for those who work in the Executive to understand and appreciate the need and place for an independent and well-resourced Judiciary. Included on this appreciation list, would be the recognition that courts, prisons, and other needs must be paid for.
Essentially, therefore, our advocacy calls for those charged with collecting and disbursing public funds, should always put the resourcing of the judiciary near the top of their priority list. If the government fails to move in this direction, and install resorts on the Commission route, it condemns itself from the outset.
There is, in the current circumstance, no reason why the Government should not move immediately to fix what is broken. Rather than studying and talking about what is to be done, the Christie administration should, with the help of those directly affected by the accumulation of neglect to the Judiciary, fix what needs to be fixed.
Efforts should also be made to let ordinary people know that this requires money. The bottom line is this: having called forth any number of wonderful Commissions, the Christie administration would do itself a world of good were it to spare itself and the public another.
Most assuredly, since we do not wish to be misunderstood, we are not suggesting that the establishment of another Commission might not help. It can and should. Such an effort should be geared to larger issues, rather than being put on matters and concerns which have obvious solutions.
At an even deeper level of analysis, we have serious reservations about a stratagem and manoeuvre which seems tailor made for blame shifting, equivocation and policy drift. As assuredly, people who remember the current Attorney General and Minister of Justice, vividly recall how much he had to say about what had to be done to fix a judiciary which was in need of renovation, we he and his colleagues were on their road to power.
Nowhere, then, was there a call for the creation and establishment of a study group. The public was led to believe that he and they were action oriented, rather than people who revelled in words and promises.
Editorial, The Bahama Journal
