Faris Al Rawi Should Bat in His Own Crease
During an interview yesterday, Faris Al Rawi opined that the ruling handed down by the Law Lords yesterday was no victory for me as the matter now has to be brought before a Judicial review. The truth of the matter is that following defeats in both the High Court and the Court of Appeal over the course of two years, leading up until two days ago I was unable to file a Judicial Review on this matter, but today I can, and THAT IS A VICTORY. Moreover, is that this case now establishes a precedent that I am sure many persons may utilize in the future when seeking accountability from the government. As such, in the unlikely scenario that my FOIA request is eventually denied, the effort that has been put into this case by Mr. Anand Ramlogan SC and his team would have still yielded a significant victory in terms of refining the interpretation of this Act. But I am confident that if Mr. Al Rawi wants to witness a true victory, then there is still a larger one to come out of this case.
Listening to the snippet of the i95.5 interview which was aired on CCN TV6 last evening however, I am concerned with the statements made by Mr. Al Rawi, not only in his interpretation of the ruling handed down by the Privy Council in this matter, but with regards to his inferences as it proceeds to a Judicial Review. Because it cannot be ignored that this PNM administration has consistently preempted court rulings with their own judgement, which conflicts with the independence and autonomy of the Judiciary. Even in this very matter, the fact that the Minister of Communications was remarking on matters of which he should have no knowledge, did not go unnoticed by the Lords of the Privy Council. As such, I would have expected that Mr. Al Rawi would now allow the court processes to run its course and arrive at its own findings. But of course, he insists on once again making pronouncements on a matter that has not even reached the court for deliberations.
In fact, despite Mr. Al Rawi now attempting to devalue the significance of the Privy Council ruling, it was a little over a month ago that he wrote to the Law Lords directly in an attempt to derail the case after he arrived at realization that Petrotrin may have lost in their defence of this matter. While the Office of the Attorney General is meant to defend the state's interest in all litigation, Mr. Al Rawi must conduct his duties while abiding by the rules of arbitration. In all of the matters in which I have sought to investigate, I have always done so through the judicial system because I still maintain faith in its sovereignty. However, when members of the government, including the Attorney General, demonstrate any amount of clairvoyance in judicial rulings of which they should naturally have no knowledge, then that can only discredit the institution as a whole and taint any ruling coming out of it. Hopefully this is not the case, as I look forward to taking this Judicial Review forward. As was made abundantly clear by the Law Lords in the Privy Council ruling, this matter is of great public interest, and as such the details of the issues surrounding Petrotrin and World GTL must be revealed to the public's attention.
Best regards,
Ravi Maharaj