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The rule of law is ignored

Sep 16, 2010 Editorial

A society is often measured by the social services it offers and by the reaction of its people to the rule of law. Anarchy is said to prevail when the rule of law is ignored and when there is no one who could enforce some semblance of societal discipline.
By no stretch of imagine would one conclude that there is anarchy in Guyana although there are times when the law enforcers are forced to take a back seat to the crime waves that would flare from time to time. This was the case when policemen and policewomen were afraid to wear their uniforms on their way home at the beginning of the decade. That was the time when the gunmen seemed to be targeting any policeman and policewoman.
In the end the hierarchy of the police realized that the force needed to reach out to the public to establish a changed image. The image that prevailed was that the police force promoted summary execution. Indeed, this has its own dangers because people could be killed on mere suspicion. But for all the police excesses and the criminal retaliation Guyana was not considered to have descended into anarchy.
Since then, there have always been attempts at compromise between the police and the societies that are prone to violence. The police toned down their aggression and found that their path to the criminals was so much easier. In the end notorious criminals who defied arrests for almost a decade soon got captured or were killed in shootouts. Buxton was the safe haven of the serious criminals for a while to the point of earning the sobriquet of killer camp.
People were once afraid to venture into the village and even businesses ceased operating there. Public utilities left the village to its own and residents of that community were not proud to declare that they hailed from there. In any case, employers were loath to employ people from Buxton. People blamed the government for their subsequent woes.
A lot has changed since then. President Jagdeo recently extended Government largesse to the village, much to the ire and dissatisfaction of the political opposition. There has been accommodation. But one must now wonder whether there is a serious move to make accommodation at every step of national life. However this seems not to be the case in some other areas of life with the government.
There is the issue of media access to Office of the President and to State House. There is an insistence on passes issued by the Government Information Agency although these passes have been found to be wildly distributed and are therefore of no security value. Approaches by the Guyana Press Association for an acceptance of alternative means of identification have been bluntly rejected.
This rigid adherence to what the authorities see as tradition is one of the things that actually affect meaningful discussions. More often than not they ignore suggestions because they have a preconceived position. It is this that had led to accusations that Guyana is responsible for the prevailing conditions that breed the criminal elements.
The view is that there is no scope for accommodation at the government level. It is as if Government officials are instructed not to yield one inch to any who dares to question what exists. Quite often the people seeking concessions become angry and it is this anger that fuels some of the problems. People begin to doubt the sincerity of the government about accommodating people.
There was the accident involving a Government Minister and two motorcyclists. The police were reluctant to take any action against the Minister, despite his obviously criminal act of fleeing the scene of an accident. The police commissioner would not even contemplate answering any question about the wrongs of the Minister.
This will never happen in any other country because the tenet is that no one is above the law. And so we seek to analyse Guyana and its democracy. We find that while there is an abundance of law-abiding citizens things conspire to give rise to blatant disregard for the law.

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