MIA > Archive > Tim Hector
Fan the Flame, Outlet, 4 November 1996, online here.
Transcribed by Christian Høgsbjerg.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Some time not so long ago, Minister Humphreys was moved to write to PM Lester Bird and say the following “After twenty years in public office we seem not to have grasped the fundamentals of the system’s operation.”
Humphreys hit the nail flush on the head. And at no time is this more evident than now. PM Lester Bird has not grasped the fundamentals of the system’s operations, after 20 years in public office, and in consequence, is making an awful mess of governing this state.
Let me prove my point beyond all reasonable doubt.
PM Lester Bird, caused an investigation to be carried out by the Solicitor-General Mr. Lebrecht Hesse.
PM Lester Bird specifically asked Solicitor-General Hesse to find out:
“(1) Whether or not any rules or regulations surrounding the operation of the Port and Customs, including security, were deliberately breached; and
“(2) Whether or not the Government was deprived of revenue legally due to it on the importation of any goods including a Rolls Royce motor car.”
Now Mr. Hesse reported back to Prime Minister Lester Bird, presenting evidence to support his findings.
Mr. Hesse found, without equivocation, the following “I find that the landing of the Rolls Royce car on the 4th August was in violation of Customs and Port Procedures.”
Mr. Hesse is very direct and found as well “that the Rolls Royce car was removed from the Port in violation of Port security procedures.”
Mr. Hesse is even more specific in his other finding. Said Mr. Hesse “that by removing the car from the Port without assessment of value, Government was deprived of revenue legally due to it on the importation of the car.”
The Solicitor-General was unambiguous, precise and clear in his findings. There is no doubt that criminal offenses were committed, and in particular, the revenue was robbed, and worse so, by public officials, acting in their capacity as public officials.
The public officials abused their authority and “violated Customs and Port procedures” and worse, “the government was deprived of revenue, legally due to it, on the importation of the Rolls Royce.”
So very serious criminal offenses were committed. Other than murder, robbing the revenue, is among the most serious criminal offenses any citizen, public or private, can commit. It cannot be taken lightly and dealt with frivolously by the authorities. It must be taken seriously, and dealt with accordingly.
Any child can tell from the terms of reference given by PM Lester Bird himself to his Investigator, that PM Lester Bird did not appear to want the investigation of the conduct of the Minister of Finance, Molwyn Joseph, in this Rolls Royce smuggling.
What he wanted to know is whether or not Customs procedures and security were breached, and whether or not the government was deprived of revenue legally due to it. The investigator told him, PM Lester Bird, in no uncertain terms, and with the greatest clarity and simplicity of language that crimes were committed.
What does PM Lester Bird do? He dives. Dived to the bottom of the sea floor and hides there. Saying before that he who asked for the official investigation, now has no official responsibility whatsoever, to see to it that the law is upheld, and the culprits are brought to justice! It is an outrage.
Now three things are obvious. PM Lester Bird is reneging on his own investigation. The very investigation he asked for as the foundation for action by him, he is refusing to act on, and to follow through with and to do the right thing. Namely, uphold the law, and bring those who violated the law with respect to Customs, Port and security procedures to justice.
Secondly, PM Lester Bird is leaving the impression that all he wanted from the Hesse investigation, was an opportunity to fire a political rival from within, and having disposed of and deposed of Molwyn Joseph as political rival for the party leadership, all else is nothing worth. It cannot be so. It must not be so. Justice must be done and be seen to be done. Nothing else will do. To accept less, is to accept a permanently unjust and corrupt society.
Look at it carefully. The only person partly punished so far is Molwyn Joseph, PM Lester Bird’s rival in waiting. He has been deposed in his pretensions to the crown, and has been disposed of like a dirty napkin. All in the exclusive interest of Lester Bird and Robin Hood. There endeth the story. Winston Gomes, the Port Operations Manager, identified in the Hesse Report as the chief aider and abettor, continues in his post as a public employee! He could not, according to PM Lester Bird’s upside-down reasoning, be suspended before the investigation. And now he has not been suspended after the investigation, pending the outcome of his charges! It becomes very clear, that Lester Bird used the Rolls Royce affair not in the interest of the law, and not in the interest of justice either. But for his own personal political ends – getting rid of the rival-in-waiting, Molwyn Joseph. And nothing else. It cannot be so. It must not be so. Justice must be done and be seen to be done, without fear or favour.
It is worth remembering too, that the same Lester Bird used the Blom Cooper inquiry in much the same way. After his brother and political rival, Vere Bird, was politically beheaded, Lester Bird crawled back into the government, on hand and knees, and then announced that he had put all of Blom-Cooper’s recommendations “on the back-burner.” He got what he wanted, the political beheading of a rival. After that justice and all else recommended be damned. He now wishes to repeat the same vulgarity. Not a damn! The problem is, it is the nation that is being demoralised and vulgarised in Lester Bird’s endless schemes. He must be stopped and estopped.
Thirdly, if crimes are officially investigated, on the Prime Minister’s instructions, and are officially found to have been committed, in particular the revenue robbed, the Prime Minister has no other alternative but to follow due process of law. Otherwise, the Prime Minister himself is guilty of condoning high crimes and misdemeanours. In the United States he would be impeachable.
One of the things I do not like to do is to venture in fields where I do not feel in command. While I have done enough constitutional history, American, British and Canadian I do not claim expertise in that area. But some things are quite simple even to the non-expert.
I shall now demonstrate, beyond all reasonable doubt too, that PM Lester Bird’s contention, on the BBC of all places, that prosecution of the culprits in the awful Rolls Royce affair is out of his hands entirely, is as unfounded as unfounded can be. It is so unfounded as to be confounded nonsense. PM Lester Bird is deliberately copping out. He must do his duty and go by his Oath of office, to uphold the law, without fear or favour. Incidentally, the Oath of Office is a constitutional requirement, and to be in breach of it, is to be in breach of the Constitution. I so charge Lester Bird now.
But I shall have to go further into the Constitution to show that PM Lester Bird has no idea, “no grasp” as Humphreys said, “of the fundamentals of the system’s operation, after twenty years in public office.” If this be so, then he is unfit to govern.
Section 88 of the Antigua and Barbuda Constitution states the following. It is fairly long so bear with me.
The Antigua & Barbuda Constitution at section 88 (1) states:
“The Director of Public Prosecutions shall, subject to section 89 of this Constitution, have power in any case in which he considers it proper to do so –
“(a) to institute and undertake criminal proceedings against any person before any court (other than a court martial) in respect of any offence against any law;
(b) to take over and continue any such criminal proceedings that may have been instituted by any other persons or authority;
(c) to discontinue at any stage before judgement is delivered any such criminal proceedings instituted or undertaken by himself or any other person or authority.”
Then comes the crucial sub-section (2) of this Section 88. It says this:
“Subject to section 89 of this Constitution, the powers conferred on the Director of Public Prosecutions by paragraph (b) and (c) of sub-section (1) of this section shall be vested in him to the exclusion of any other person or authority.”
In other words, no one, however big, can tell the DPP to take over, continue or discontinue any criminal proceedings under any law. The DPP and the DPP alone has that discretion. He cannot be instructed or advised on sub-section 1(b) and (c), that is constitutionally clear.
However, it is obvious that on sub-section 1(a) that is, “to institute or undertake criminal proceedings against any person” the DPP can be advised to do so, by such persons as the Attorney General, or the Prime Minister. Or more properly, the DPP “can institute or undertake criminal proceedings against any person” as directed by the Attorney General acting on the advice of the Prime Minister. That ought to be very clear, lucidly so, on any reading of the Constitution of Antigua and Barbuda.
It is now self-evident, that PM Lester Bird, himself a lawyer by profession, has “no grasp of the fundamentals of the system’s operation after twenty years in public office.” Or worse, is pretending not to. Or worst, is deliberately condoning high crimes by his Minister and other public officials, to wit, depriving the government of revenue legally due to it.
These matters raised here, in themselves constitute an indictment against Prime Minister Lester Bird. No system can operate if the person charged with the ultimate responsibility refuses, for whatever reason, to ,make it work. That person, be he Prime Minister, or night-soil engineer, must be made to do his duty, or be made to vacate office. Otherwise the trek to anarchy races to its end. The first casualty of course, would be the criminal justice system itself. This cannot be allowed.
It is with such a situation we are faced now, fairly and squarely. We must act fairly and squarely too, or we will all be deluged.
Either, the Prime Minister does his duty, in accordance with his Oath of Office, or he be made to vacate his office. The very system of justice is at stake.
One last thing. In the Space Research issue, the sending of arms to racist South Africa, it was found that “Customs and Port regulations were violated as were security procedures.” That was in 1978.
In the Blom Cooper Inquiry, into Israeli arms sent to Antigua, and onward to the Medellin drug cartel and its notorious narco-terrorists, it was found again, that Customs and Port rules and regulations as well as security procedures were violated. That was in 1989.
In this 1996 awful Rolls Royce affair, it was found by Solicitor-General Lebrecht Hesse, that Customs and Port security procedures, rules and regulations were again crassly violated and as Hesse reported, this was done with “dazzling speed “. It was done, in fact, with “all criminal haste. “
The point is, and this is irrefutable, throughout the life of successive Bird administrations, Customs and Port security procedures, rules and regulations, have been systematically broken. It is a recurring problem. Some of the problems have come to light, many are still hidden under the cloak of national and international crooks and drug barons.
Blom Cooper went into elaborate detail as to how to prevent such violations of Customs and Port Procedures, at the airport and seaport. The Lester Bird administration knowingly refused to implement these Blom Cooper recommendations, though it was fully agreed by Parliament, on both sides of the house, to accept and implement those recommendations. In his own words, PM Lester Bird, put the Blom Cooper recommendations “on the back-burner.” All of them except those that applied to removing Vere Bird from public office. And then Lester Bird himself restored Vere to Public office despite the Blom Cooper recommendations, and despite Lester Bird resigning from Government because they were not implemented. Lester Bird is the grandmaster of the political double-cross. Insincerity personified.
PM Lester Bird now has no one else but himself to blame for this awful impasse, this recurrence of criminal behaviour and offences committed at the Port (and at the airport, too!)
This occurrence, and recurrence of criminal offences at the Port, cannot go unchecked. The culprits must be brought to justice. The Prime Minister and the Attorney General are under a Constitutional obligation to do so. Not to do so, is a blatant dereliction of duty.
Not to do so either, is to leave the stable door open, so that more and more offences can be officially committed. That is a conclusion which no one can argue with, on any reasonable grounds.
Therefore the Prime Minister, having caused an investigation to be carried out, having received the Hesse Report, and having seen the offences committed are made explicit by the Solicitor General in his report, has no alternative but to direct the DPP “to institute and undertake criminal proceedings” against persons known. Anything else is a deliberate flouting of Justice itself.
We must all see to it now, that Justice is done and be seen to be done. Or else in Alexander Pope’s immortal words
| At length, Corruption, like a general flood, |
Last updated on 9 February 2022