Kwame should not have left town

Oct 05, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
If what was reported in the local media on October 1, 2009 under the caption “Kwame McCoy leaves town” is accurate then Guyanese must turn to President Jagdeo to provide answers as to why he allowed this to happen.
One day after Justice Ian Chang ruled against Mc Coy in his law suit against three media operatives causing the ban on an injunction, which blocked the airing of the infamous tape, to be lifted, Mr. Mc Coy, it was reported, left the city and landed at an interior location where he was welcomed by a senior government operative in the region.
With serious allegations, of a sexual crime committed against a minor, lingering, the President, who promised the nation that he would intervene in this matter allowed his liaison officer, identified as the alleged perpetrator, to ditch Georgetown leaving the future of the victim in even more jeopardy.
Is the President hoping that by making the accused less visible in Georgetown the subject would change, or is he saying that the children in the interior locations will not be vulnerable as those in Georgetown, Linden, and the more populated areas.
What messages are we sending to our children; is it that the issue of sexual predation or pedophile is such a minor one, that complaints of sexual crime committed against a child must not be taken seriously. Or is it that when a senior government functionary is accused of committing a crime he/she is simply allowed to “hop skip and jump” all over the country, or even beyond the borders, without even a preliminary inquiry into the matter.
There are too many dangerous precedents being set by the President, and government where government officials are concerned. They make it appear as though there might be different laws for the governed and the government.
Another glaring example is the Roger Khan fracas, in which serious details were revealed in a New York court, and where the Guyanese public home and abroad expected the President or the local law enforcement to act. Evidence admitted in the court during the trial of Khan’s Lawyer Robert Simels, suggest that there could be a crack in the stack of unsolved murders and spurious killings which took place in the country since 2002.
So far Guyanese have seen no movement with relation to the Roger Khan saga and the revelation made in the courts that implicates Minister Leslie Ramsammy, who continue to function as Minister of Health.
And now that Roger Khan’s guilty plead was accepted, will the Guyana government or the local police department take action to solve all those unsolved murders, executions and killings which gripped Guyana during those frightening years? Or is it that we are not really interested in solving those cases. Looking at what is happening in this “kwame milieu”, where even the protection of our children seems to be unimportant to the executive government; we might just be entertaining some wishful thinking.
I am confident, however, that the Guyanese public will not relent in the call for justice to prevail in these and other matters; we cannot allow the President and the government to continue to disregard the rights of all of us, including our children.
I call on all right thinking Guyanese to call on the Rights of the Child Commission to take steps to ensure that the allegations of sexual predation against one of its members be fully investigated.
It is clear we cannot depend on the President or wait for him to act on this matter. Further, it may constitute a serious transgression of children’s rights if Mr. Mc Coy is allowed to function as commissioner if he is not cleared of this damaging allegation.
I appeal to those mothers and fathers in the executive government to break the silence on this issue and demonstrate the human and parent side. It is unreasonable and unfair for us to allow partisan politics to pervade our every thinking, to the extent that we are prepared to jeopardize the total well being of the Guyanese child.
Any allegation which suggests that the lives of children are at risk must be of concern to all of us regardless of our social status, class or creed as all our children might be equally vulnerable. I maintain that the accused is innocent until proven guilty. It is our responsibility to protect our children by ensuring that these claims are investigated and not pushed under the table. I am sure all of Guyana is hoping that Mr. Mc Coy is innocent, so let’s have an investigation.
Lurlene Nestor

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