The year of the court papers that traveled faster than sound

Jan 08, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

For an analyst to evaluate the contents of 2011 in Guyana, it would take at least forty columns. The phenomenon of the November 28 election and the attitude of the GECOM high priests would take at least ten of those forty pieces. I don’t intend to pen that number, but I will certainly need to do more than one. Here is the first.
From my perspective, the most alarming development was the timing of the hearing of the libel suit of then President Jagdeo against me and this newspaper. It came up just days short of one year after papers were filed. This is a country where any primary school student would tell you that civil matters take years and years to be heard. A libel hardly sees the light of day before five years. When I got a telephone call from one of my lawyers, Khemraj Ramjattan, telling me that in three days I would have to be in court I was speechless. I asked him several times – “the libel itself is ready to be heard.”
After one of my lawyers (Christopher Ram) publicly stated in published letters in the two independent dailies that none of the defence attorneys requested an early hearing, I anticipated an outpouring of analyses by members of the public and important stakeholders on the implications of the supersonic speed by which this trial was brought before a judge.
But only Timothy Jonas, President of the Bar Association, gave a public response. He said it was unusual and he only knew of one other similar situation.
Still with the rule of law, 2001 saw a manifestation of real semi-fascism and the society stood silent. The press descended on the home of Kwame Mc Coy who was accused by Mark Benschop of attacking him. Benschop told the media he was filming the “luxurious” home of Mc Coy when he was attacked by a number of persons, including Mc Coy. He was beaten and had to run for his life. His clothes were torn and there were bloody streaks on his body. His Toyota Tundra was badly vandalized.
Mc Coy in turn told the police that Benschop threw an object and broke one of his windows. As it turned out, Mc Coy was allowed to go home at midday. Benschop was remanded to Brickdam without bail. It was a sickening example of the corrugated rule of law in this land.
A beaten victim is put in the lock-up and the alleged aggressor goes home. Sadly, there was no indignation shown by the population against this graphic act of semi-fascism. This was Guyana for you in 2011.
In 2011, any perversity expressed by the corridors of power was humiliatingly accepted by the frightened population of this land. The year 2011 began with the unconscionable and forceful removal of more than 100 vendors from the Stabroek Market Square after a grenade exploded in one of the stalls. There was no advanced notice to move. There were no documents served on these working people that allowed them a grace period.
There were photographs in the newspapers showing the owners of a barber shop picking up the remnants of their equipment that were tossed out when their unit was demolished
The eviction was watched by two Ministers – Robeson Benn and Kellawan Lall. In any country, those Ministers would have been surrounded by policemen for protective reasons but not in Guyana. Hundreds of helpless citizens looked on as the machines crushed the livelihood of these poor people.
There was no end to the madness of 2011.Mountains and mountains of poisonous garbage filled Le Repentir Cemetery, which exists next to large residential districts. Hospital waste was disposed of there. The nearby residents bore up with it at Christmas 2010 and had to live with it in 2011. The opposition remained reticent. The population as a whole showed no emotion.
Fear had taken over Guyana long before last year. But in 2011, its ugly presence was all around.
In October, the insanity reached the University of Guyana. Ms. Gail Teixeira, Dr. Prem Misir, Mr. Pulandar Kandhi, the PS in the Ministry of Education, PPP Parliamentarian, Bibi Shadeek, and the son of Dr. Nanda Gopaul, Dr. Gancham Singh, of the Georgetown Hospital, raised the little pieces of paper they had in their hands in the faces of the UG Vice Chancellor and Chancellor at a meeting of the Council of the University.
On those pieces of papers were the names of ten UG lecturers that these PPP kings and queens wanted to be dismissed from the institution. In January 2012, they are coming again.

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The year of the court papers that traveled faster than sound

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