When one is in brown stuff up to the neck, one should perhaps avoid plumbing the depths of despair. Could someone please tell Former Speaker of the National Assembly Sanjeev Teeluckdharry that? That would help stop some of the time wasted making unnecessary noise just for the sake of being seen to be saying something.

The arrogance with which Teeluckdharry, then deputy speaker, tried to challenge the Lam Shang Leen Committee on the Drug Trade even before they started asking him any questions is revealing. And the obtuseness with which he is dealing with its findings today is rather immature. That has been compounded by his pompous refusal to appear before the Bar Council, hiding behind flimsy excuses.

This is not the first time Teeluckdharry has tried to throw his weight around and proffer threats hoping that would save him from facing up to his acts. There are at least three cases against him at the Supreme Court in relation to professional misconduct, one for ‘trying to pervert the course of justice’, one for ‘unduly trying to influence the jury’ and the last one is about his accusing the director of public prosecutions of acting in bad faith in revenge for the Sun Tan case when the latter refused to grant his client – Rakesh Gooljaury – the status of witness “as we – whoever that is – had promised him”. And the Bar Council may choose to refer his latest outburst against Judge Lam Shang Leen – a case he is refusing to answer for – to the Supreme Court. That would bring the total cases against him up to four! More than anyone can handle in a lifetime.

Instead of throwing tantrums each time he is caught or his desires have not been fulfilled – as in the overseas trips where he was displeased with the amount of per diem he was getting –  Teeluckdharry could well benefit by asking for a judicial review as he had said he would do. After all, the points he is raising with such venom are irrelevant to his case and do nothing to make him look innocent. Everyone can see that they are a diversion tactic to try and make us forget the serious accusations levelled against him and which require his resignation as member of the National Assembly. At the end of the day, everyone is asking what happened to the judicial review he threatened to ask for and for which he had already hired a lawyer.

Why is he getting away with all this? His leader, Pravind Jugnauth – busy as usual building his own image through gross and coarse MBC propaganda – is doing what he does best: lying low and running away from anything that requires urgent action. One might even think that he is giving Teeluckdharry more rope to hang himself. After all, all Jugnauth needs is time. So the more cases are referred to the Supreme Court, the less we will talk about them and the more a by-election can be avoided. What happens after the next general election will be Teeluckdharry’s problem and his alone. No threats will work. No bargaining. And perhaps the bravado will immediately stop and with it any claim to clear a name that is beyond redemption.

If I were Teeluckdharry, I would project myself into the future and temper my arrogance today. Tomorrow might be too late.

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