When no one is exempt from the law

Feb 21, 2013 Editorial

The Pope is the head of the Roman Catholic Church. He is perhaps the most important religious leader in the world. He is so powerful that up until an English King, Henry VIII who wanted to get married after divorcing an earlier wife, no one could divorce. It was the very early 16th Century. King Henry later sought to have the marriage to Anne Boleyn annulled. At the time the Pope was Pope Clement VII who refused to grant the King divorce, thus forcing Catholic England to become Protestant to this day.
Despite that break, the Pope remained the religious leader with the largest following. He is so great and revered that at the time of his death there is no postmortem; he presides over his own country which is the Vatican City; he is an international powerbroker as was demonstrated during the World Wars; he has his own army and his security detail is better than that provided for most heads of government.
Arguably, he is the most powerful man on earth. When he speaks world leaders listen.
Usually he dies in office but in this case he has opted to demit office because as he claims, he cannot cope with the pressures of work. And it is here that the world will suddenly see the pope as a human being.
Now there is talk of prosecuting him because he is accused of withholding information on the priests who sodomised young boys. This was a scandal that rocked the church to its core. Many priests were defrocked but most were simply shifted around to continue with the molestation. The criminal prosecutors are now going after the pope.
Another powerful man who walks the earth is the president of the United States. But even he is not immune from prosecution. One President, Richard Nixon was almost impeached for breaching the law as it pertained to spying on his opposition. That became known as the Watergate Scandal. The president had to demit office.
On a lesser scale millionaires have gone to jail. In the Caribbean there was Alan Stanford who is still in jail facing the prospect of never walking among free men again. Bernard Madoff is serving a sentence that guarantees that he will never leave jail. Long is the list of prominent people who have gone to jail.
In Guyana there was the remigrant officer who was made to face the courts but he died before he could go to trial; there was the Minister who died not long after he was found guilty of malfeasance in public office; there was the Deputy Chief Education Officer who served five years in jail for exercise book fraud.
However, all that happened nearly four decades ago.
But it continues to happen in other countries where no one is above the law. People are sanctioned. A man behaves like a boor on an aircraft just this week because a baby happened to be crying. He is out of a job and he faces prosecution. It matters not what he might be or who he might know.
Should this be the case in Guyana the country would be so much better off because people in public office would then work for the people they are hired to serve. If they dare to demand bribes then they know that once caught they would be destroyed. They would be better persons.
We have had cases of Government officials discharging loaded firearm that were not even being properly investigated. The police would say that he is closely connected to the government. The same official is involved in a vehicular accident that leaves a man crippled. Again faulty investigation leads to the victim being identified as the person in the wrong. The modus of arresting the driver in an accident and even detaining him overnight or for days is waived here.
An official is accused of being involved in a remigrant fraud; he is sent on leave and later returned to his job. People are caught in the midst of a fraud and are transferred as was the case of two Regional Executive Officers who continued with their fraudulent activities.
In Guyana some people are above the law.

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