Letter to the Editor - Don’t knock the rights of the public |16 April 2015

I refer to your article in the Seychelles NATION of Saturday April 11, 2015 entitled ‘Panel of judges preferable to current jury system, says former Mauritian CJ'

I am not in any way presenting my opinion on the preference of either remaining with the jury system or doing away with it. I just feel that his comments about 'jurors not having any legal training and hence it is best to hand the job over to qualified professionals' as somewhat offensive to the intelligence of the general public.

Does that mean that the general public who elects their leaders through the ballot system, who in turn pass laws which are eventually applied by Judges should also not have that right as they do not have any legal training?

Perhaps in his haste to 'dump the British archaic system' using his words, he had not meant to be offensive. But his point about putting trust only into professionals is also questionable.

We have numerous examples about professionals for example, in the fields of environment who have had the basic laws of nature kick them in the face.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the great architects of communism had their system thrown back in their faces by the common man.

Be careful, we do not stray into the area of dismissing groups that should not be eligible to vote due to 'not being qualified’.  
 
If the jury system is best done away with, due to practical reasons, let us not mix our arguments to knock the rights of the public.  

And on a pragmatic note, the jury system in the colonial days fitted well as those eligible where usually government servants. Today with a large private sector, it is a major strain when a member of the public has to be absent from his employment for what can be a very long period, creating major disruption at work.

Roy Fonseka
Citizen