Minister’s comments offensive to Guyanese and the Constitution

May 24, 2008 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Recent statements by Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Dr. Frank Anthony, in an article published in Kaieteur News dated 5/19/2008, are not likely to resonate well with Guyanese.
The Minister in his recent comments, with regard to his Ministry’s intent on sparing preparations for CARIFESTA X in light of the reported channa bomb and shooting incidents at the Ministry’s building, made these comments, quoted directly:
“If we are going to just shut down everything we do and say we are not going to have anything because of crime…that will be the wrong approach…We have to use these stumbling blocks as stepping stones.”
Then, taking direct aim at Opposition Leader, Robert Corbin, Minister Anthony went on to say this: “To threaten an international event full of socio-economic and cultural benefits for the nation is a virtual abuse of the freedoms guaranteed by this Government…”
In the first piece of comment, while I can appreciate the fact that the Minister is, desperately, trying to shore-up some level of optimism amidst the nation’s daunting criminal environment, I, however, find his description of Guyana’s incomprehensible crime and security situation as just a “stumbling block” to be woefully regrettable and inexcusable.
From this remark it appears that the Minister sees himself as so immune to this situation that he cannot recognise and appreciate the extent of this cruel burden Guyanese are living with, so he is incapable of comprehending the extent of the obvious fear that has engulfed the nation, owing to inconceivable criminality. The present spate of crime in Guyana cannot be rendered by any sane person in these simplistic terms, especially when entire communities and regions are traumatized as the lives of innocent residents are taken wantonly and with impunity.
An intensified, cruel and gruesome criminal enterprise in Guyana cannot be merely a “Stumbling Block” that Guyanese have to simply get over, like they do with a common flu, Mr. Minister.
The current crime spree cannot be treated lightly, Dr. Anthony, when massacres are committed with ease, children are slaughtered while they sleep, mothers are slain while begging on their knees, be-heading becomes popular, police stations are openly and fearlessly run over, leaving murdered officers slumped in their barracks; these are not just stumbling blocks, Sir.
Is crime just an obstacle we must skip over when, ever so often, a life is lost just by a random drive-by-shooting? Is the Minister correct to say that a businessman found dead in his car trunk, due to suffocation, is just a minor hurdle?
Is Frank Anthony serious when he makes statements thrust on the assertion that allegations of torture might just be impediments or sticking points that Guyanese must understand and get over?
Is it reasonable to assume that the Minister imputes that the slaying of Former Minister Satyadeow Shaw and execution of popular talk show host Ronald Waddel are just some difficulty that we must get over?
Is he assuming that overseas-based Guyanese should understand and appreciate the fact that they may be targets for criminals when they return home to relax?
Are Guyanese, really, supposed to just get accustomed to brutal and raging criminal enterprise since this is just a hurdle they have to glide over with pride? Is this what Guyana is reduced to?
It is most unfortunate and unthinkable that a Minister of the Government would see the crime situation in Guyana in such unimportant, inconsequential, and dismissive terms.
The Minister’s pronouncements certainly give credence to the view that the government might not necessarily be eager to intensify its efforts to retard the spate of criminal activities in the country. This view, which Anthony’s comments seem to justify, is premised on the belief that the government does not consider the issue of crime as a serious problem for the people of Guyana. As a consequence, the attitude of the administration is a lacklustre one which provides a fertile environment for criminals to emerge and execute their agenda with ‘vicious pride’, as families and communities are made to painfully mourn the death of loved ones. Since Anthony is a senior member of the Jagdeo Administration, it is fair to assume that his thinking and bold statement to downplay crime, and the importance of providing a safe and secure domestic environment for Guyanese, is definitely not a top priority on the Government’s agenda. The Guyana Constitution guarantees the people of Guyana this most basic and fundamental right which becomes the responsibility of every government to ensure that the citizens enjoy a safe and secure environment.
Article III clearly enunciates this point, of which it makes specific reference. However, as a result of this simplistic view of crime in Guyana believed to be shared by the present administration, Guyanese may now understand why the President thought it prudent to call on the people of Corentyne to protect themselves when they are faced with these “stumbling blocks”. Clearly, the grand plan of the government might be to remove the constitutionally entrusted responsibility to provide a safe and secure environment for the nation, and cast same on the people, a feature of a weak, lazy, uncaring, and visionless regime.
The Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports certainly helps us to understand why there is an undue delay, or lack of urgency on the part of the administration, to lay the torture report in the public domain, even though more than two months ago the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Roger Luncheon, stated that the report is completed and submitted to the government.
So while the rate at which crime remains unsolved is troubling for every Guyanese, the government’s actions, and now their stated view, do indicate that they are worried or bothered about this situation; after all, crime is just a “stumbling block”.
With regard to the latter comment referred to in this letter I can only state that this amounts to more dangerous developments for Guyanese. Minister Anthony’s uttering about “freedoms guaranteed by this government” demonstrates how powerful the government sees itself. These comments, while they might not be shocking to Guyanese, based on the government’s behaviour, have aroused more suspicions, concerns and horrors for the entire nation. It is unimaginable to think that someone sitting as a Minister or Cabinet Member of a government which touts itself as a democratic one can make statements which indicate that the government sees itself as being above the people and has more authority than the nation’s Constitution. According to the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Synonyms, other words that can be used interchangeably for freedom include liberty, independence, enfranchisement, sovereignty, autarchy, manumission. Guaranteed on the other hand means surety; security, pledge, ensure etc.
Dr. Anthony and the government should know that any freedom guaranteed to the people of Guyana is a freedom fought for by our forefathers and guaranteed to us by their sweat, blood and tears.
These freedoms were later put into writing in a document called the Guyana Constitution, where, along with our rights, they are guaranteed. And, unlike what the government thinks, the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and the actions of any government must be consistent with what is enshrined therein. So for the Minister to publicly state that the PPP/C Government is the one who guaranteed freedoms to the people of Guyana is not only nonsensical but also ignorant, arrogant and outrageously stupid.
If this is how the government truly thinks then executive political leadership in Guyana is undoubtedly in crisis, or if it is that the government knows better but wants to play politics of power on the people, this is even a more catastrophic dilemma which raises questions of credibility, intention, and trust of the government.
More than that, it demonstrates a pattern of lack of respect by the government for the pride, intellect, self worth and dignity of Guyanese. The words also constitute blatant disregard for the Constitution.
The Minister’s comments ridicule the Constitution to a document of nothingness, in particular Chapter III titled “Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of the Individual”. Every Guyanese must be outraged over this development and call on Dr. Anthony to retract his comments or provide examples of the freedoms that the PPP/C Government guarantees Guyanese.
Unlike what the Government thinks, its role, based on the principle of constitutional supremacy, is to ensure that those freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution are protected. It, therefore, has taken a pledge, on becoming the government, to protect the freedoms and rights of the people of Guyana and not to trample on them.
The big question is whether the government has been upholding this pledge. In fact, most people may argue that there is sufficient evidence to support the view inferred by Anthony, a view that claims that the government is above the Constitution since, according to him, it is the PPP/C Government who granted freedoms to Guyanese and not the constitution, a belief absurdly incongruous with civilized political thinking in a supposedly democratic environment.
Some of these evidences, they may include to be the following: locking up citizens to “teach them a lesson” per the President; refusal to acknowledge Article 13 of the Constitution which prescribes, among other things, that all parliamentary parties be given equitable access to the state media (NCN, Guyana Chronicle) to present their views and opinions; usual refusal to incorporate opposition parties amendments to motions; Government’s refusal to follow through with commitment made in the two joint communiqués signed with the main opposition party; open crackdown on press freedom; union leader in support of the government stating that the workers should not challenge government since “ they depend on them”, among others. These instances may lend clear support to Dr. Anthony’s inference that the government is the master and the people the servants, whose freedoms are at the behest of the government’s whims and fancies.
These are certainly worrying revelations. I call on the Minister to retract his comments and urge the government, in particular the President, to immediately address the nation to rid the mischief played up in the remarks of his Minister.
The government must also, unequivocally, state its views on the crime and security situation in Guyana and appraise the nation of practical and meaningful steps, without disclosing classified details, being taken to combat the crime situation.
It is disappointing to know that the government see the people of Guyana in such unimportant terms that they are bold enough to say and do anything it wants, irrespective of whether or not its actions affect the people. I believe that as Guyanese we must be more careful to monitor the actions and statements of the government, lest we might be inadvertently caught up in irreversible doom.
The government, and its cohorts, cannot be allowed to continue to demonstrate disrespect for the people of Guyana and their Constitution.
Lurlene Nestor

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