Anthony L. Hall is a descendant of the Turks & Caicos Islands, international lawyer and political consultant - headquartered in Washington DC - who publishes his own Internet Weblog at www.theipinionsjournal.com offering commentaries on current events from a Caribbean perspective

Regrettably, our friends in Grenada – namely: Ruggles Ferguson, president of the Grenada Bar Association and Dr Francis Alexis, former Attorney General – have shown no such respect for or deference to T&T authorities.  Because, even though all relevant facts have not been disclosed and the matter is far from resolved, they claim that the “case is being badly handled” and that – for the rest of us in the region - “there are many lessons to be learnt” from “several mistakes were made”.

However, the only thing that seems clear to me is that there’s an internecine struggle going on within the nation’s judiciary, which has metastasized into the political arena. And, that this struggle stems from charges filed by prosecutors against Justice Sharma for perverting the course of justice - by attempting to influence the outcome of the corruption trial of former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday earlier this year. (Although, Panday was eventually convicted and is now out on bail pending his appeal.) 

Unfortunately, instead of recusing himself from official duties and applying for a judicial review - as any reasonable and judicious judge would have done -  Justice Sharma responded to the charges by denouncing them as utterly unwarranted and politically motivated; notwithstanding the fact that they were deemed meritorious by a fellow, impartial, judge. Alas, it appears there were other members of the judiciary who were all too keen to indulge Justice Sharma’s impudent disregard for the rule of law and the proper administration of justice in this (and, allegedly, Panday’s) case.

But once Sharma played the political (a.k.a. race) card, and even implied that Prime Minister Patrick Manning was attempting to hound or bully him out of office, recourse to a dignified and judicial resolution to this case became almost irretrievably lost.

Therefore, with all due respect to my learned friends from Grenada, I find their observations about the state of affairs in Trinidad & Tobago misguided and overbroad.  After all, based on what little we do know, this national crisis arose with and was fueled by the (mis)conduct of Justice Sharma.  Moreover, I submit that the only lesson to be learnt from it is that when public prosecutors file credible charges of misconduct against a chief justice, to preserve the integrity and independence of the judiciary, he (or she) should do immediately (voluntarily or in handcuffs) what, at long last, Justice Sharma was finally pressured to do on Wednesday, ie:

...step down from performing any judicial duties until his application for judicial review is heard.

I suspect that if Justice Sharma had thus recused himself, none of the subsequent confluence of legal and political machinations that have plunged Trinidad and Tobago into this crisis would have ensued. 
Indeed, I urge T&T authorities to take the occasion of Justice Sharma’s belated recusal to distill the legal issues from what has become more of a political entanglement and allow the police, public prosecutors and courts to perform their duties.  And, I have no doubt that this reassessment of the situation will help them effectuate what President George Maxwell Richards declared is an urgent national priority to:

...restore the confidence of the citizenry in the rule of law and the administration of justice.

NOTE:  For what it’s worth, when all is said and done, I fully expect to see Sharma following Panday in the dock, and ultimately in jail...