Dear Editor,
I totally agree with the comment made by learned friend, Jonas MF Coddett when he stated in a letter to the Stabroek News on Saturday July 4, “if the positions are not advertised then prominent lawyers overseas would not know of the vacancies to be filled.”
I know as a fact that there are many Guyanese who are attached to the judiciaries in Belize, The Bahamas and the Eastern Caribbean who are experienced and qualified to hold the offices of Chancellor and Chief Justice. I will commence with Kenneth Benjamin, a Guyana scholar, who is the Chief Justice of Belize and who served 17 years as a High Court Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Court (ECSC), Court of Appeal Judges in the ECSC, Louise Blenman, and Gertel Thom and also Minet Hafiz of the Court of Appeal in Belize.
There is Maureen Crane-Scott, the granddaughter and daughter of Alfred Victor Crane, and Victor Emanuel Crane, both of whom served as head of the judiciary in Guyana. In fact Maureen was admitted to practice with me in 1979 by her father Victor Emanuel, who was Chancellor of the Judiciary, creating legal history for a father to admit his daughter to practice.
I recall Chancellor Crane was very emotional because he wanted his daughter to remain in Guyana and move towards being appointed head of the judiciary like her father and grandfather, but she had other plans and moved to Jamaica and later to Barbados
where she was appointed a High Court Judge. She is now an Appellate Court Judge in The Bahamas.
There are several other Guya-nese judges in t\The Bahamas and the ECSC; names like Indra Hariprashad Charles and Carolita Luckhoo-Bethel (Bahamas), Mortimer Cumberbatch, Darsham Ramdhani, Birnie Stephenson-Brooks, and Keith Thom, (CSC) come to mind.
There are also four first instance Guyanese judges in Belize: Denis Hanomansingh, Courtney Abel, and Shona Griffith.
In addition to the Caribbean there are several in the United Kingdom, the United States and other jurisdictions. Readers might recall that one Rabi Sukul, a Guyanese lawyer in the UK, without any judicial experience, was appointed as a Court of Appeal Judge in Guyana. He quit after it was revealed that he was allegedly the subject of proceedings for disbarment in London.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
