Dodson was not chosen for her engineering, legal competence

Mr Pindar is right when he wrote: “We do not know for sure why she was selected and appointed to the PPC.” I offered my reason in the letter Mr Pindar has replied to. It did not include any analysis of her legal competence. I have not written anything negative about Ms Dodson. The subject was not Ms Dodson but the character make-up of the leadership of the APNU+AFC. An engineering qualification was not what the Appointments Committee of Parliament was looking for to fill the PPC. It couldn’t be because only one member, Ivor English, has a background in engineering and he spent a greater part of his public service career in management. The Chairman of the PPC is not an engineer.

I don’t need to repeat for Mr Pindar why Ms Dodson was chosen by the Appointments Committee which has five APNU+AFC parliamentarians as against four for the opposition. I will repeat for those who do not know the background. The names have to be voted on. It meant that Chris Ram and Anand Goolsarran did not get majority votes assuming that their names were even entertained. If there was no vote then the consensus did not favour Ram and Goolsarran.

But how did Ms Dodson make it? The PPP would have balked at Ram and Goolsarran. Likewise one expected the APNU+AFC parliamentarians to resist the nomination of Emily Dodson. She was Mr Jagdeo’s lawyer who won for him in the High Court and Appeal Court his challenge to the two-term constitutional restriction. Why would Mr Jagdeo employ Ms Dodson? I assume all lawyers make ideological choices when they decide to take a case.

My contention is that the PPP favoured Ms Dodson for obvious reason and the APNU+AFC chose her for ethnic reasons. This is my opinion and I feel the ethnic factor was at work in the removal of Mike Khan at the Georgetown Hospital and the recall of Elisabeth Harper. The politicians of this country are intellectually blind. Burnham alienated half the population because of ethnic politics and couldn’t govern effectively. Presidents Cheddi and Janet Jagan, Jagdeo and Ramotar alienated half the population and couldn’t govern effectively. The present government has introduced the ethnic factor in decision-making. It will end up with the same fate as its predecessors.

In closing let me say that Ms Dodson was not chosen by the Appointments Committee of Parliament for her electrical engineering degree or her legal training. Sadie Amin wrote that it was the Women Lawyers Association that nominated Ms Dodson because of her law experience. Her ethnicity was the decisive factor, a factor that has played a destructive role in the entire history of our country.

Yours faithfully, Frederick Kissoon