Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall, during a telephone interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA) responded to the statements made by the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) at its press conference today with regards to the Terms of Reference (TORs) of the Linden Commission of Inquiry and the AG’s recourse to the court on another matter.

Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall

Court
APNU is being propagandistic. Reading their statement I get a feeling of dÉjà vu.  These were the identical sentiments expressed in the budget cut matter in which they contended that the court had no jurisdiction to interfere and, that they had the power to cut the budget.  On both counts, the court ruling established that they were abysmally wrong. The court not only assumed jurisdiction, but ruled that they had no power to reduce the budget and consequently pronounced that their action of cutting the budget was unlawful.  It’s either they are being disingenuous or they have misconstrued the court ruling.
All that the government is seeking to do in these proceedings, as well as previous proceedings, is to ensure that the National Assembly acts intra constitutionally and not extra constitutionally.
The legal issues which are raised in all these proceedings have never been decided by a court. Therefore, it is imperative to our fledgling democracy that we ventilate them and get judicial guidance because there are obviously conflicting views on these issues .Rather than be critical of these legal challenges, they should be encouraged for the development of our constitutional jurisprudence and our democracy.
Therefore, the government’s approach should be emulated, not criticised. The alternative is confrontation and chaos.

TORs
The objections of the APNU to the Terms of References (TORs) for the Linden Commission of Enquiry are indeed inexplicable.
Representatives of the APNU sat with representatives of the Government and jointly crafted those TORs.  From the beginning to the very end they made inputs.  The TORs were deemed to be final only after the government and the joint opposition were in complete agreement on each of the matters contained therein. They are now stopped from in any manner criticising them. The TORs are very much theirs as they are the government’s, Nandlall stressed..
The APNU cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time when it is politically and propagandistically exigent for them to do so. They have become so indoctrinated in a mentality to oppose that they are now opposing their own product.