Guyana: Descent into state terrorism

Nov 09, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There can be no doubt about it; the PPP had lost rationality and a creeping nihilism is taking over that party and the government it leads. There are all types of authoritarian systems in the world but whether it is a military government as in Myanmar, a semi-fascist state like Cuba, an elected dictatorship in Venezuela, an outright rogue state like the Sudan, no leadership of any country would accept its chief law officer saying what I am about to repeat here.
I first touched on this subject in my August 30 column (“Statements of another mind”). Against the backdrop of what the Government calls terrorist attacks on state institutions, let me return to it. What I am about to reproduce here went without public comment from any section of the Guyanese society. But one presumes that foreign embassies in Guyana did take notice. The chief law officer in Guyana is the Minister of Justice/ the Attorney-General. This fellow presides over the entire territory of state legality. This man called a press conference and this is what he told the Guyanese people; “Speaking for myself, I know Minister Ramsammy and at one stage I thought they really meant me because it is in my kind of character make-up to get involved at that level.”
Ask any school kid to explain that and he/she would tell you that the Minister of Justice is unambiguously saying that when he read and heard that people accused Leslie Ramsammy of being involved in illegal dealings with a drug trafficker and using his ministerial status to facilitate this drug lord that when he heard about the details and heard that people were talking about a Minister, he thought they were referring to him, Ramson. This is because he, Ramson, is the type of person to get entangled in the kind of activities people have accused Ramsammy of.
This man was not disciplined by his superiors. In no other country, including the worst tyrannical systems such a law-maker would have been allowed to retain his status. This Government surely has to be one of the world’s most sordid tragedies. By what logic can you retain the Minister of Justice when he brazenly tells the nation his character is of the genre that would incline him to dabble in illegalities? For a more detailed discussion on Charles Ramson and the tragedy of this nation see my August 30, 2009 column. I brought in this Ramson incident because of how the AFC’s leader, Raphael Trotman responded to the PPP’s statement on the renewal of terrorism in Guyana.
Mr. Trotman did not use the words, “state terrorism” but it could seriously be argued that state terrorism was implied when he told this newspaper in an invited comment that it is the Guyana Government’s disrespect for the rule that has brought the society to the kind of disorder that now faces it. The concept of state terrorism is not new and found favour in the literature of political theory after Israel adopted the illegal practice of covert assassinations and secret bombing of Palestinian leaders and groups. The style of President Bush’s confrontation with the terrorist threat to the US raised questions of state terrorism. Torture, rendition and imprisonment without trials, all violations of international law, were committed by the Bush Government leading to severe global condemnation of the US
The descent into state terrorism began with the marriage of the Government after the Mash Day escapee episode in 2002 with Roger Khan’s crime outfit. Such an interlocking relationship destroyed the morale of the security forces and extirpated the remnants of moral restraint that existed in the leaders of Government. In this context, one should take note of Ramson’s straight-faced admission of the type of character he has. The disrespect for the rule of law has led this Government into a cul-de-sac of unmitigated state terrorism. The Lindo Creek massacre, the torture of soldiers in the investigation of the missing AK 47s, the submerging of a drug suspect in an ants’ nest, the burning of the reproductive organs of a 14 year old in a murder investigation are just many incidents in a long list of state terrorism.
State terrorism in Guyana is accompanied by crude violations of the Constitution and disrespect for the sacred rulings of the courts including the CCJ. Where we go from here is anyone’s guess. No Guyanese wants to see murderous attacks on state institutions with loss of life. Only one way is left for us to save this country – the ruling party needs to ask Mr. Jagdeo to resign and form a national government to take us into the 2011 elections.

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