The month of April has arrived and met us all the poorer in the absence of several key people who had helped prescribe an alternative developmental pathway for us in T&T and the Caribbean Community.
For certain, moving the region from one phase to the next in pursuit of the kind of independence that breeds self-confidence and pride - based on real achievement - has proven as painful as it has been beneficial in small but meaningful steps.
Overcoming diffidence and self-loathing is a well-known challenge of the post-colonial experience – all sixty-one and a half years of it in our case. Those who dare engage the dynamics of change have, sadly, not appeared in significant numbers.
So, when last Saturday the news broke that Michael de la Bastide had died there was a futile scramble to put my hands on my copy of Within the Law, Memoirs of A Caribbean Jurist.
In it, I had borne witness not to superhuman powers and resolve, but to very human attributes upon encountering new and difficult terrain. Had I found the book, I could have filled this space with quips and anecdotes to support this contention of essential humanity.
Only three days before this had come word that Désirée Bernard of Guyana – another member of the inaugural Bench of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) had passed. This came almost three months after the death of Dutch jurist Jacob Wit who, in 2005, had sat alongside de la Bastide and Bernard and two others in the brave, new world of the CCJ.
Also among them 19 years ago this month, was late Guyana-born Caribbean jurist/legal luminary, Duke Pollard, who left us in 2022.
The important nature of the task embraced by these Caribbean icons has been captured in the numerous, fitting accolades that have reached the public space throughout the region.
It must have grieved them heavily though that the commitments of the 2001 undertaking and 2005 inauguration had dwindled to timid apprehension and cruel active and passive ambivalence. For instance, late prime minister Basdeo Panday had once lobbied forcefully to host the headquarters of the CCJ and spoke eloquently in support of its establishment.
His subsequent campaign for urgent reform of the national constitution (which is currently being considered since his passing in January) significantly omitted mention of final appellate status for the CCJ.
This is despite, even during his rigid about turn on the matter, conceding that the fear of political interference and the potential for disproportionate financial obligations, were completely unfounded given the process for the appointment of judges and the Court’s innovative funding mechanism.
Today, in 2024, some of these baseless concerns have returned to haunt us. The Caribbean legal fraternity is yet to fully ventilate these subjects in the public space – the practice of law seemingly being the stuff of cloistered virtue.
In fact, we keep hearing nonsense, even from professional advocates, about “we not in the CCJ” despite existing, mandatory compliance as a court of original jurisdiction on questions of the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and T&T having been the subject of judgments both in favour and against single market practices by this country.
To his credit, attorney general Reginald Armour has repeatedly flagged the issue. On Saturday, on hearing of the passing of the former Chief Justice, he said: “In acknowledging his indelible contribution to the quality of this Republic’s proud development since its independence, the people of Trinidad and Tobago can now contribute to completing his dream of replacing the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice.”
Armour should now get all his colleagues to more aggressively pursue full adoption of all functions of the CCJ, especially as part of the process of reforming our constitution.
This, more than any statue or street name or fancy statement, is the least to be expected as a fitting tribute to Michael de la Bastide and the team of pioneers who helped us inch forward to complete the act of our independence. Sad that he and some of the other leading pioneers have not lived to see us get there.
