Eart Witter recent decision to use his influence to block the appointment of the bright, affable, well spoken and well composed acting public defender Matondo Mukulu from the post of Public Defender must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
It is clear to me and to others, that the now retired, stuttering and a most ineffective former public defender, interfered with the selection process for his replacement, which in my mind compromises the process, thus making this recent appointment of Arlene Harrison rather suspect. if not null void, meaning the appointment should be cancelled and the entire process redone.
I read Earl Witter’s letter written to Mantondo Mukulu dated Dec 12, 2014, a letter , which should carry zero weight given the fact that, he Witter was NO LONGER a public servant and had no tenure of service under the Public Service act.
In that long winded letter, you could sense anger and pure jealousy on the path of Witter who was an abject failure as public defender. I will highlight a few sections of this letter below.
i. your appointment to act as Public Defender was ultra vires, null and, void, ab initio, it being open-ended and purporting to have been for a period exceeding the two months mandated by ss. (3): your “tenure,” it turns out then, dangles not by two but, by a single slender inelastic thread.
ii. you have, but erroneously, been enabled and, have seized upon an opportunity which patently you have perceived, not only to arrogate to yourself all of the powers of a Public Defender duly appointed but, have yourself, purported and, with great exuberance, inter alia:
a. to “rebrand” the Office of the public Defender;
b. to terminate other probationary appointments validly made by me, (one of them to the freshly created and highly sensitive post of Director of Corporate Services) and to substitute and/or make other appointments of your own which, clearly, are as null and void as was my own of you to act as Public Defender;
Earl Witter has long retired and has no authority, legal or otherwise to be writing to the person acting in this position. I not only found the letter to be rude and condescending, but highly improper and warrants some sore of legal interpretation.
Witter continues his rant :
d. by your public and in-house utterances and conduct regarded me (on one famous occasion to my own face) in a most churlish and highly disrespectful manner;
e. to have assured me orally, that it had “never crossed (your) mind” that you could seek appointment by His Excellency, the Governor General, as Public Defender but notably, have since resiled from that pretence;
f. have exhibited a propensity for duplicitous conduct (of which there is much evidence) by virtue of which I have come to regard you as untrustworthy and thus, on that basis alone, undeserving of any or any serious consideration by His Excellency for appointment as Public.
Look at d above, clearly this is very personal and I strongly suspect that having retired, Earl may have been attempting to direct the person acting in his position and was rightly rebuffed.
Now for the real kicker
But now, placing all such reliance as I may, upon the provisions of s. 5 (2), I put you formally on notice that you should forthwith cease and desist from operating under the colour, guise or pretence of “acting” Public Defender. Moreover, promptly, publicly and henceforward, do announce your substantive position to be that of probationary Deputy Public Defender and, confine yourself strictly to the relevant job description. The period commencing at the expiry of the probation envisaged by this appointment is, perforce, a de facto extension of your probation.
In all the circumstances therefore, you are rendered bereftof all authority save that encompassed by the Deputy Public Defender’s job description.
Now can someone tell me who Earl Witter think he is and what authority he believes he has, having retired and no longer employed as a public officer and therefore has no right in law to direct and or authorize any action to the person in the current position.
I would like for a lawyer to comment on the above.
Now the big question become, why did Witter believe it necessary to write this letter to Mr Mantondo Mukulu and then copy same to the speaker of the house and the Governor General, does one not find this very odd.
What impact or role did this vile letter have on the non appointment of Mr Mantondo Mukulu to the post of Public Defender, given the abject failure Mr Earl Witter was in this role. In my mind Mr Mukulu was “doing” rather than “acting” while Earl Witter was “acting” more than “doing”.
Let’s look at some of the highlights of Mr Mukulu short tenure while “doing” the job of Public Defender.
This from the Government Information Service ( JIS)
Sunday, June 01, 2014
KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Acting Public Defender, Matondo Mukulu says that total of 657 of 800 outstanding cases have been resolved by his team, since he assumed office in April this year. (2014)
Another point to note
He said that when citizens file complaints, they will receive a response from his office within 21 days, “whether we have written to a government state body and they have responded, or not.”
If the head of the JCF could get the clear up rate Mr Mukulu was able to achieve during his rather short tenure, that Commissioner would be crowned ” King” of Jamaica and the National Security Minister would be made a National Hero.
What has happened to Mr Mukulu instead, is a bitter old man filled with anger and jealousy at the apparent effectiveness of the person filling his role has been seen as a villain rather than a hero and has been prevented from carrying out the good work, which he started on behalf of the Jamaican people.
The young, bright and vibrant people in this country should therefore not let this slip by without vigorously protesting via social media, writing to the papers, to parliamentarians etc to express their disgust at Mr Witter’s interference in the appointment of a public officer, given the fact he himself is no longer a public servant. His actions by the way would still have been inappropriate even if he was still a paid public officer.
It is instructive that in other countries around the world, it is the young people who typically takes the protest to their leaders in order to effect change, so why the same cannot take place in Jamaica.
The rate on employment among the young is over 30% and if young people continues to sit by and do nothing thus allow people who are way past their useful best to block their upward mobility, we could soon find a country unable to move forward and young people failing to make the achievements they ought to make in life.
So instead of using social media to comment on Lisa Hanna’s bathing suit, which by the way was the appropriate outfit for a day at the beach, lets use it to denounce Earl Witter and let it be known that dinosaurs like himself will not be allowed to stifle the progress of young and talented people in this country.
I am angry and that is putting it mildly.
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