by Colin Hyde

The other morning Brother Jose Luis Uk Espat got on his platform on social media and rained hell on the justice system for applying the fly brush to a man who he felt deserved real stern punishment. Mr. Uk Espat said the man had invaded his shop twice, and the third time he did he chased him down and put a thorough beating on him. The sense I got was that the invader was a not so sane homeless person, and Mr. Uk Espat felt forced to rough him up because he believed the man presented a serious threat to his wife and family, particularly when he was away.

Now, Brother Uk Espat is a medical professional, and a very brave man, and a very talented man, and a very educated man, and a very selfless man. The fact is that he is a national treasure, particularly for the tireless, expert work he has done to help families find missing loved ones, or locate the remains of loved ones who have fallen victim to this sick violence that has overwhelmed our country. I have heard Wave throw mud at him, I think with the aim to justify their not giving him a job in the medical field during their 13-year regime. The story I got from them was that the medical board wasn’t fully satisfied with his academic qualifications. I don’t know where the brother did his medical training, but I know that some elites from here have sneezed at certain degrees from Cuba, that, of course, before dehn geh di sense.

Mr. Uk Espat said a senior magistrate did not deliver justice. I think he said the man was allowed to walk. It’s possible the magistrate thought the beating by Mr. Uk Espat was sufficient punishment. It’s possible the magistrate looked at the coin from the other side and thought that the man who got whipped could have brought a charge against his accuser. Me noh know.

Mr. Uk Espat said the handling of the incident opened his eyes to why our justice system is a disaster, and that his verdict is the problem is with the magistrates in the court. Before getting into my “quarrel” with him, I must tell you that one of my nieces is a senior magistrate. I have not tried to find out which magistrate in particular Mr. Espat was railing about. And from me to you, it doesn’t matter. I don’t sweat that kind of fever for the educated elite/well-off members of my family. I love them and pray for their good health and general happiness and that they continue doing well financially, but I am quite dispassionate, even ruthless when judging their professional performances/decisions.

Dr. Gayle and his team, in the book Like Bush Fire, hinted at corruption among magistrates and lawyers as one of the causes of our system’s failure. On page 102 the book says: “Breach of regulation among magistrates is not uncommon. As learnt, it was much worse in the past. ‘This group is much better, but they are not blameless.’ Some lawyers are retained at one special court and this means that the criminal and the lawyer can work together to reduce the effect of the court. The case becomes predictable. Why should the same lawyer and judge be working together all the time for prolonged periods — this lends itself to corruption.”

I say, looking at the not so long gone past, it’s not impossible that because our lawyers were more book-learned in the law than our magistrates were, that magistrates leaned on them, at times, and felt beholden to them, at times, and thus the lawyers gained a free run over our system. Expanding on the lawyer/magistrate relationship in not so old times, really, the magistrates can’t be blamed. The lawyers can talk, all of them, and they can write, all of them, and the court is the world of hablar. Ah, if the lawyer is your friend, there is less likelihood of them embarrassing you in court the way they papisho witnesses who aren’t so lettered. Yes, magistrates would have wanted to cultivate the friendship of lawyers.

I think I can give you a deeper insight into this association. I write a column for the Amandala. My grammar is pretty darn good, but I’m not purist perfect. Much of my prose is English-Kriol, and that’s safe territory. When I write “English” the purists could get me for things like my “who and whom” and a few other technicalities if the newspaper’s copy editor doesn’t put me through the fine-toothed comb. Magistrates have to be very wary of purists when they write reports. Yap, and there the lawyers could offer friendship, and we know what that beautiful relationship can lead to. Oh, oh, we have our own guilt before palabras. See how electorates across the globe fall for pretty talk by politicians? Never mind they lead us into painful poverty and deadly bondage.

I could have missed something, but I didn’t hear Mr. Uk Espat blame the lawyers, not once, for our system’s terrible failure. I wonder if that has anything to do with his association with Ms. Audrey’s 100-member activist group, MAT (Moving Ahead Together). I believe I saw his pic in the crowd that posed for the cameras. He might not have wanted to offend the lady. Ms. Audrey has disappointed me for never pointing the finger at criminal lawyers for their part in the absolute disaster of less than 5% solving of murders in our country.

Brother Uk Espat probably didn’t want to mash dehn kaan. But this murder epidemic calls for a full frontal, no pussyfooting. This is a serious and terrible story playing out here. See civilized Belize, a country with all these rights. But when it comes to the world’s absolutely most terrible crime, if you’re looking for justice in Belize, agh, the only place you’ll find that is in the streets.

I have heard a barge load of bad stories about these lawyers, from colonial to modern. I think much of the blame is on big school. They are products of indoctrination. If a man gives his mind to another, which is what these young Belizeans do when they go to big school, the one they give their mind to can make them do anything.

See Muhammad Ali. He said he wasn’t going to any war to fight any Viet Cong because he didn’t have any problem with them. He had not given over his mind to the power structure. What makes a soldier get involved in an unjust war and go and shoot down his brother? Old men at the top cleverly convince them. Really only a few can spit out bad lessons. In the US there is a Muhammad Ali. In Belize there is a Caroline Trench-Sandiford.

Those little bohgaz we send away to study, they don’t meet Mahatma Ghandi at school. They aren’t taught about truth. They are taught how to get their clients off the hook. That’s why the Mahatma condemned much of the lot.

Ouch, they really feel they are smarter than everyone else. But maybe that is natural. An individual who can out talk everyone else would get heady. They don’t hear the rest of us or feel our pain. Guess who’s in their ear all the time? Their clients! They form bonds, personal relationships. And we know the things people do for their friends. Of course, avarice for material goods is in play too, for why dehn du us wrong.

Whoa there, you lost me when you didn’t call out the lawyers, Brother Uk Espat. You put all the blame on magistrates!