COMMENTARY: Who Can Be Guilty Of Treason?

By Yves Ephraim 

WHO CAN BE GUILTY OF TREASON? 

In light of recent national events, the word treason keeps popping up in my mind so I thought I would go seek a definition.

A search on the internet gave these two definitions:

1. The betrayal of allegiance toward one’s own country, especially by committing hostile acts against it or aiding its enemies in committing such acts;

2. The betrayal of someone’s trust or confidence.

Very interesting!

Would it not be fair to conclude that treason is essentially the betrayal of the trust of the people of a country by an individual or group of individuals, particularly as it relates to aiding another country in a hostile act against ones own country?

What then should the people of a country do with an individual or group of individuals who perpetuated treason against them?

I then decided that I would seek out that answer from the Antigua and Barbuda constitution.

In Section 4(1) of the Constitution it states:

“No person shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a crime of treason or murder of which he has been convicted.”

My interpretation of that clause guides me to think that the state has no right to take an individual’s life except in cases where the said individual has been proven to have committed treason or murder.

Therefore murder and treason, within the context of the constitution, are acts that justify the death penalty. 

Our constitution equates treason to murder!

This begs the question, what exactly are acts that constitute treason?

Based on the definition we established earlier, would my illustration below constitute an act of treason or humanitarianism?

If I were your country’s leader and I had voluntarily and quietly colluded with another country to turn your country into a mass refugee camp or a criminal holding facility like Guantanamo Bay, would you consider me a humanitarian? 

Would you put me on your shoulder and parade me throughout the length and breadth of your country extolling my love for country and mankind?

What exactly is a leader’s mindset, who is willing to quietly offer up his country to the control of another country which has not been acting kindly towards your country?

What about that leader’s behaviour is not considered an act of treason, based on our definition? 

In contrast a former cricketer and commentator named Colin Croft, while making a reasonable criticism some time ago of the state of readiness of a cricket venue, Antigua Recreations Grounds (ARG), was declared persona non grata.

Strange world we are living in!

This just demonstrates that there is never justice for the little man.

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