There is no such thing as a bar association in St. Vincent; those were the words of lawyer Jomo Thomas speaking on Boom FM on Wednesday.
The Bar Association is presided over by lawyer René Baptiste, who has been president for the last seven years.
“Baptiste hasn’t called a meeting in the last seven years. There are supposed to be annual meetings, but they don’t bother to call them. It’s really a sad situation, and part of the problem in St. Vincent is that the Bar Association, like every other institution on the island, became very polarized”, Thomas said.
Thomas, drawing reference to the polarization, told co-host of OMG Stephen Joachim that if he were a lawyer and wanted to run for president, the mark would not be whether Stephen is a brilliant lawyer, a good administrator, or a good advocate.
“The litmus test would be, should I vote for Stephen? I don’t think so. Stephen does not support the government that I support, and consequently, everything becomes hobbled”.
“When people voted in Miss Baptiste, as I did, it was because they wanted us to have a functioning bar association. One thought that the level of professionalism and the duty of the profession would demand that the bar function as an organization, but here we are”, Thomas stated.
Thomas claims that a member of the association’s leadership informed him very early on that the Bar Association is not an activist advocacy organization.
