#SpeakingOut – None above the law

There are no Laws on the statute book of Barbados that cannot be amended.

It is therefore a lame excuse for anyone to suggest that the working conditions of High Court judges cannot be changed.

Sometime around 1975, the government of the day comprised 18 members of the Democratic Labour Party and six opposition members amended sections of the Constitution of Barbados.

Nobody challenged the amendments, nobody sued the government, the amendments became Law and life continued as usual, except for those who lost their seats the next time around.

If current parliamentarians from both Houses of Parliament are serious and indeed concerned about weeding out corruption, there are means and ways of enacting legislation that will capture a wide net of individuals in both the private and public sectors.

Since it is well-known and has been stated by a leading attorney, that there is corruption in both sectors it makes sense to spread the net as far and wide as possible.  

If persons are corrupt, then the legislation should be as strong a deterrent as possible, if persons are not corrupt, then there is no reason to worry or fear.

Including some and excluding others smacks of discrimination and injustice, eroding the veiled transparency that is so often glibly mentioned from time to time.

It is very likely that the exceptions and escape routes inserted in our integrity legislation can create a platform of impunity for wrongdoers.

We should be ever mindful of what Guatemalan human rights activist and Nobel Prize Laureate Rigoberta Menchu said about corruption: “Without strong watchdog institutions, impunity becomes the very foundation upon which systems of corruption are built. And if impunity is not demolished, all efforts to bring an end to corruption are in vain.”

Michael Ray  ]]>