No Rule of Law

By anthony sylvestre

Lawyers have a thing they call the “rule of law”. It is a necessity in any society, this rule of law thing – that the laws of the land must be obeyed by everyone, from Prime Minister downwards. This rule of law thing has a co-existing side to it: when laws are not obeyed, the system (which is to say, the justice system) must take that citizen to task.

There is an overwhelming view by Belizeans that we don’t have any rule of law in this country right now. Government Ministers and officials, criminals, indeed everyone does what they want without consequences. The fact that there is just widespread abuse of authority by those in authority only exacerbates this lack of confidence in the system.

It seems like almost each and every day, a Belizean citizen is sent a letter from the Lands Department telling them that their lease has been cancelled or their land taken away. The distressing thing of course, is that that same lease or land is given to a UDP supporter or crony. And many times the Ministry of Lands tries to pull one over citizens, taking away their land and saying that the land is needed for a public purpose. Very recently, the Chief Justice had to scold the government for this wrongheaded and unconstitutional practice of taking away a citizen’s land to give to another private citizen under the guise of a public purpose acquisition. In addition to giving the man back the land, government was ordered to pay the man $30,000.00 as well.

Then there is also the widespread abuse of citizens’ rights by the police. The police department, it may be said, is like a punching bag and is daily pounded with criticism and condemnation. You would have thought then, that the police will by now have gotten their act together. But things just seem to be getting worse. Citizens are routinely locked up by the police in excess of the legally allowed 48 hours and oftentimes released only to be “recycled”: this is the term the police use when a person who is in detention for 48 hours is released and then picked up back as he steps out of the police station to spend another 48 hours in detention. Whilst it is true that the police have a tall order to contend with in terms of the criminality on the streets, the abuse of their authority in these kinds of ways do not help their crime fighting capabilities.

These visible shows of abuse, it seems to me, have caused the lack of confidence in the system and a correlating and deleterious culture of lawlessness and indiscipline in our country today. They, no doubt, have an even more deleterious effect on the psyche of our youths.

Presently in Jamaica, the seeds of lawlessness and indiscipline (abuse of authority and lack of confidence in the system) are wreaking havoc in that country. A civil war between police and badmen have erupted in that country following the government’s move to capture accused crime boss Christopher “Dudus” Coke, who is wanted in the United States as the mastermind of a sprawling cocaine and marijuana smuggling operation to that country.

Dudus appears to be more powerful than the Prime Minister who was forced to fess up to the nation that his political party has been using their influence to stall his extradition to the United States.

We in Belize seem to be heading on a collision course ourselves. You can feel it in the air.

Our Prime Minister was on television the other night, mocking us with his talk of transparency and his law firm and the oil company his law firm represents. Meanwhile, the opportunities for young men and women to attain a decent life continue to shrink as small as the point of a needle. Hopelessness and lawlessness are the order of the day; people’s confidence in the system is further eroded on a daily basis. Yet, this government continues to b—s— the people with talk of transparency and accountability. The people are watching and feeling Mr. Prime Minister.

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