A country has to be governed by laws, not by policy, because policy can be subject to arbitrariness and caprice. No country should subject its citizens to the whims of public officials, because to do so, exposes them to being abused. Policy cannot supersede law. The law is always paramount to policy, and policy has to be consistent and subservient to the law. If the law allows certain actions, then policy cannot make prescriptions that override those laws. One of the unfortunate things with the politicians in this country is that they seek to make policy which imposes conditions on citizens which are not backed by laws. This is the first stage towards arbitrary rule. The second step is when those who administer the law begin to believe that they make the law and therefore whatever they say or do has the force of law. The common law has its roots. One of its main roots is the defence of private property. Indeed, there are some who hold to the view that the very reason why the common law emerged was in order to protect private
p r o p e r t y . This defence of private property goes to the heart of our legal system. Without our legal system, private property would be subject to the caprice of rulers and to the mercy of those with greater strength and force. Indeed, if there was no common law, the State would have free rein in encroaching on the private property of others. A person could be dispossessed of his or her property at the fancy of another and not have any recourse. The defence of private property, therefore, remains a key aspect of the common law, and by extension, of a country’s legal system. But by also granting constitutional protection against the arbitrary deprivation of property, the laws of most democracies have now placed the protection of property under the law, and in the case of Guyana, it is under our supreme law that individuals are expressly protected from being arbitrarily deprived of their property. It is important, therefore, that the State, and particularly our high-strung public
officials, be restrained from believing that they can dictate to a citizen how he or she should use their property. It is the right of every citizen to determine what he or she wants to do with his or her property; be it a house, a piece of land or a vehicle. Obviously this right, protected by the common law, is not absolute. It cannot be used for unlawful purposes or to deprive someone of his or her legally safeguarded rights. But if I own a piece of property, the State has no role in telling me what I can lawfully not do with it. They cannot, for example, tell me what to do or to whom I should sell that property. It is my property, and once it is not used to commit a crime, then no one has any right to tell me what I can do or not do with it. This is not just a polemical issue; it is not just a legal issue. It goes to the very heart of the relationship between a citizen and the State. The State cannot and should not be allowed to encroach on the private spheres of citizens, because to do so would amount to tyranny. Public officials therefore cannot, either through policy
CARICOM trade ministers meet today on CSME, UK’s exit of EU Future trade relations with the United Kingdom after that country leaves the European Union (EU) will be among matters discussed when Caribbean Community (CARICOM) trade and economic development ministers meet today. The Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat said that the two-day 46th meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) will discuss the implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of
goods, skills, labour and skills across the 15member grouping as well as external economic relations. The United Kingdom is due to leave the EU in March next year after it triggered on March 29, 2017, Article 50, which began the formal process for it to leave. Caribbean countries have in the past expressed concerns at the level of the trade and other relationship with Europe and the United Kingdom as a result of London’s decision to leave the body. (CMC)
DEM BOYS SEH Brazzy complaining how Jagdeo mek him do it When dem boys was young dem use to hear people always crying how dem only do something because somebody tell dem to do it. Ask any child why he do something and he gun either tell you that he don’t know or that somebody tell him to do it. Imagine Brazzy pulling that trick pun people after he get charge. He spend de last couple days crying to Jagdeo newspaper how is Jagdeo tell him to do everything that he do. And de man seh it wid pride like if he win de lotto. “I get permission from de Cabinet”. Dem boys seh he gun get permission from the magistrate just now. In de same way how he do wha
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Kaieteur News
Wednesday May 16, 2018
Jagdeo tell him to do dem boys want him to do wha de magistrate tell him. “Go to jail.” Ashni, de shaat scamp, got more sense. He talk de day he come out de court and after that he ain’t saying nutten no more. When dem boys ask him if Brazzy talking fuh him he just blinking. He like Exxon who claim that it costing dem US$10 million a year to run de Georgetown office. Dem boys want to know how much people deh in de office. De Waterfalls paper got more people that de ExxonMobil office in Georgetown but de cost to run de whole paper, pay salary, pay light bill and water rates, pay phone bill and all dem things can’t come to US$10 million.
But Exxon can do that because nobody ain’t checking pun dem. Nobody can’t complain when dem pay demself enough money to buy four Marriott every year. And Statia deh talking how he collecting tax from everybody. Dem boys know that Guyana and de US pass a law that if you paying tax in one country you don’t have to pay in de odda one. Poor Guyana know it getting rob because de tax people can’t count de salary wha Exxon seh it paying its own staff. Suh it settle fuh a small piece. But dem boys can’t talk too hard because Exxon does get really vex when dem boys talk. Talk half and just watch how robbery can’t done.
or otherwise, dictate to any citizen how his or her property should be used. Once the State begins to encroach on the private property of others, when it assumes that it has such a right to tell a citizen what he or she should do with what he or she owns, then we are on the road to anarchy. The very legal architecture of the country is going to be
threatened and the rights of citizens would become like common currency to be traded freely. This is a fate that must be avoided in Guyana, especially in the midst of those who feel that public office grants them a licence to prosecute personal agendas and settle personal scores. If this threat is not contained then every citizen,
big or small, rich and poor, powerful and weak, is in grave danger. The right to public property must be preserved in all its manifestations.