Dear Editor,
Totalitarianism is best achieved by controlling and weakening the ability of those who are best equipped to fight it.
The Legal Practitioner’s Amendment Bill is clear and present danger to the people of this nation. It is a barefaced dismantling of the gains made recently with the passing of the Judicial Review Bill enabling easier access to the courts for relief against administrative actions.
The new Legal Practitioner’s Amend-ment Bill gives the Commissioner of the GRA the power to determine whether a lawyer can practise his chosen profession. The Commissioner must issue a practice certificate before a lawyer could practise law. In no other country does a tax commissioner or the revenue authority have the authority to determine the right of the legal professional to practise. This is what happens in elected dictatorships.
Lawyers bear some of the blame as some of them have not paid their fair share of taxes, but for any government to use this problem that applies to some and not all within that profession to subvert the rule of law, the constitution and the rights and freedoms of a nation is plain unacceptable.
They should go after the lawyers who fail to pay their taxes. Prosecute them using the powers already given by the tax legislation. It is the same power that was used against Godwin Maxwell. The GRA has no place interfering with lawyers’ ability to defend the rights of the public. Imagine a lawyer brings a case against the government under the Judicial Review Bill. However, the revenue authority determines the lawyer`s practise licence will be revoked or will not be renewed because of some alleged tax transgression. That lawyer cannot practise law any more.
The case against the government is effectively killed while the lawyer languishes in a prolonged battle with the taxman. That lawyer goes from defending the interests of the nation to defending his ability to practise law. Multiply this scenario many times over. How could the people trust the tax commissioner of a nation to regulate the defenders of rights and freedoms under the constitution?
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
