`Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean have lost a shining legal light’
With the death of Dr Fenton Harcourt Ramsahoye, late Senior Counsel and former Attorney General, Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean have lost a shining legal light.
According to an Office of the Prime Minister statement, Dr Ramsahoye, as one of the authors of Guyana’s Independence Constitution, has been one of the country’s brightest sons, a courageous and incorruptible politician, outstanding scholar and indomitable advocate.
A former Principal of the Hugh Wooding Law School, the late Dr Ramsahoye in addition to being a legendary legal scholar, was a foremost authority on constitutional and Roman-Dutch law, the statement added.
He has been recognised for his extraordinary integrity, and for his sterling contribution to the development of regional jurisprudence and the institutional framework for the guarantee of fundamental human rights and open, parliamentary democracy in the Caribbean, the statement said.
Dr Ramsahoye resigned from the PPP executive in 1976, and resettled in Trinidad, Barbados and England. The statement said that he exposed the intrigues and manipulations within the PPP, and has been famously remembered for his remark, “comrades, the party works in devious ways.”
The Prime Minister in the statement commented that since 1968, he has enjoyed close personal and cordial relations with Dr. Ramsahoye, whom he respected as his legal guru, and political role model. He not only encouraged the PM to pursue higher education but also gave him financial assistance to get through law school. The PM disclosed that Dr. Ramsahoye returned to Guyana in 2002 specifically to present his petition for admission to the Bar.
