TO IMPEACH OR NOT TO IMPEACH

While the whole world is fixated on the Mueller report and whether or not President Trump should or should not be impeached, a lot of people have forgotten that we have going on in good old T&T our own little impeachment drama, which although not of earth shattering importance to the rest of the world, is of great importance to our democracy and how we govern ourselves. I am talking about the recommendation by the Law Association of Trinidad & Tobago  to the Prime Minister made some four or five months ago that he should trigger the provisions of section 137 of the Constitution which sets out how a Chief Justice might be removed from office. For the record, here is what the relevant parts of the section say:


"137(1) A Judge may be removed from office ... for misbehaviour, and shall not be so removed except in accordance with this provision.
        (3) Where the Prime Minister, in the case of the Chief Justice ... represents to the President that the question of removing a Judge under this section ought to be so investigated, then -
            (a) the President shall appoint  a tribunal ... ."


The section goes on to detail how the tribunal is to be appointed and is supposed to act or investigate. In other words, the Chief Justice is put on trial for the acts or decisions that may warrant removal from office. Eventually, the findings of the tribunal are sent to the Privy Council for a final decision.  It is important to note that triggering the impeachment process is NOT finding the Chief Justice guilty. It is simply saying, hey, there are a number of matters here that need to be answered which may or may not be a good reason to remove you from office if you are guilty of all or any of them.


There are a number of safeguards built into the whole impeachment process that can ensure that a Chief Justice is not dealt with unfairly ... and all right thinking peoples will agree entirely with these safeguards.  Our system of justice is sacrosanct. Without a fair system of justice that everybody buys into (regardless of one's political bias or interest) then what you have is a dictatorship ... benign or otherwise. And the safeguards are there to ensure that a politician just can't remove a judge or a Chief Justice just like that.


Now, there are, unfortunately. a fair number of questions hanging over the head of the current Chief Justice. Any fair minded person ought readily to concede that he may well be innocent of every single charge, just as he may be guilty of any or all of them. But what is clear is that there has been no open investigation and no opportunity for the embattled gentleman to put his answers. No matter how one might feel about the current Chief Justice ... whether he is good, bad or indifferent ... the point here is that both he and the country need to have the air completely cleared. If there is a stain then he ought to be removed. If there is no stain then he ought to be exonerated. But what we have now is that the current holder of that high office is operating under a very dark cloud of suspicion which is not good for him personally nor is it good for the country. One way or the other the air needs to be cleared.


The Constitution provides a beacon of principle and  democratic values to the country. The Prime Minister must pick up the baton which the Law Association has sent to him and trigger the impeachment trial of the Chief Justice. But it needs to be clearly understood that the Chief Justice may very well be innocent of the various crimes and misbehaviours of which he stands accused and we all should be most wary of rushing to judgment merely because the process has been triggered.


And the Prime Minister should be acutely aware that perception is often reality and that  there is a perception amongst certain sections of our society that his refusal to date to trigger the impeachment process is based more on perceptions of race and of tribal loyalty than of what is best for the country. These perceptions are as unfortunate as they are dangerous for our society and it is necessary that they be addressed head on. Our justice system requires it. Indeed, the survival of our democracy demands it.