Latest update December 2nd, 2024 1:00 AM
Sep 12, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
I finally found out why a 31-year-old villager from Mahaicony, Godwin Maxwell, who couldn’t harm a fly, committed suicide after he got nine charges from the Guyana Revenue Authority. This is a story that would make headlines on all the major networks in the world and the front page of the leading dailies if it had happened in the US or France etc. Things started to bother me about this man after Dale Andrews and I discussed the suicide incident before the news reached the press.
Funny feelings were running inside of me after I spoke to his lawyer, Leslie Sobers, the day after Maxwell jumped into the Mahaicony River and died. Sobers’ details induced into me a fantastic curiosity. I had to research this tragedy. Last week I did. I found out that fascist tentacles had enveloped Maxwell. Fear drove him to his death. According to Sobers, he explained to Maxwell that the nine charges were not as frightening as he thought and that there was nothing to worry about since he would be defended. But there were things inside of Maxwell’s mind that he didn’t exhibit to his lawyer.
Something was not right about the GRA charges against Maxwell. Even in the US where tax-evaders are hunted down ruthlessly by the revenue authorities, someone like Maxwell would have missed the radar. There isn’t a country in the world where the revenue officials peep into a dance, occasionally held in some far off place, and want to know how much is made from such an event.
All over the world, in the rural areas, folks hold these types of festivities and a small fee is charged. Sobers told me that when Maxwell came to him with the charges, Maxwell confessed that he made absolutely no profit from his yearly dance. You don’t need a genius of an accountant to tell you that these little events hardly bring in super profits, if any profits at all.
Why then did the GRA leave thousands and thousands of people of far more interest to them and pick on Godwin Maxwell. I spoke to dozens and dozens of Guyanese from all walks of life and the compelling consensus was that there was more to it. All the people I discussed the Maxwell case with or who talked to me about it after publications of my two columns on the tragedy were definite in their judgement that the GRA does not go after infinitesimally small people like Maxwell. But what was perplexing to every Guyanese who read about this monumental tragedy is that they do not believe that Maxwell committed suicide because he was charged by the GRA.
Last week I traveled to Mahaicony to research the death of this young man and found myself staring at Guyanese fascism. First, a note on my visit to the GRA’s offices on Charlotte Street, Lamaha Street and in the Post Office Building. There are two places I don’t like because they remind me of life’s fragility, its ephemeral and deceptive face and the uncertainty of the human condition – hospitals and courts. After visiting the GRA offices I would not want to go there again. I hope future journalistic research doesn’t take me there again. The GRA offices are like a huge prison. Employees look scared, stiff and robotic.
There is an eerie atmosphere. Members of the public give off the impression that they are at the police station. While waiting to see the relevant authorities I heard the negative whispers from those waiting to be attended. Not even the courts and the police stations depressed me like the GRA last Friday. I have met happy magistrates and nice policemen. On Friday, all the GRA persons I spoke to were afraid to speak to me. I just saw fear in their eyes. The exception was Ms. Graham, the lawyer who instituted charges against Mr. Maxwell. I discontinued the conversation with Ms. Graham and her legal colleague, Mr. Bell, after accusing both of them of insulting me with their convolute logic. Back to Mahaicony.
Each year, Maxwell held a dance in honour of three dead youths from Mahaicony that he loved and felt symbolized the injustice done to a section of the poorer classes in Guyana. Certain political figures warned Maxwell to stop the yearly event because it was raising racial consciousness in Mahaicony. Maxwell was defiant. After several warnings, Maxwell was threatened. He replied that those who wanted the dance stopped could do what they like. After being charged by the GRA, Maxwell knew that his bluff was called. Fear took over him. Maxwell came face to face with Guyanese fascism. The desperate act of suicide came about because he was told his family would be charged too. Maxwell killed himself in the belief he was protecting his family.
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