Today President Obama makes an announcement that Guyana must listen to

Jul 14, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Today President Barack Obama addresses the annual conference of the oldest civil rights organization in the US – National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). African-Americans no longer use the term “coloured” which they find pejorative. Out of a mark of deep respect for the greatness of the NAACP, African-Americans have allowed it to retain the word, “coloured” in its name.
In his address today, President Obama will touch on the need to reform mandatory minimum sentence for non-violent crimes. He is expected to describe the disproportionate effect it has on the non-white people in the US. Later this week, Obama will achieve the distinction of shortening the sentences of more convicts of non-violent crimes than any other President gone before him. President Gerald Ford had pardoned more convicted people but these were mostly draft-dodgers during the Vietnam War.
Obama’s words have huge implications for Guyana. Every Guyanese should read or listen to Obama today. This country is destroying its youths through mandatory prison sentences for the possession of small amounts of marijuana and cocaine. One does not have to be a journalist or an academic to know that per week this country charges and remands five persons accused of drug possession. The figure is roughly twenty per month. In a population of just under 800,000 this is a horror show.
The imprisonment of young men for small amounts of marijuana in Guyana tells a story that every politician is scared of confronting – it has an ethnic dimension. Obama will not be afraid to identify African-Americans as the main victims of mandatory prison sentence for drugs. Here in Guyana no one wants to make that sociological observation.
In this country we have an African-rights organization named ACDA. It is yet to pay attention to this tragedy. The PNC’s biology comes from the African-Guyanese community but the PNC has stayed away from the subject.
The AFC is too middle class to stray in that direction. The WPA may be divided on the issue but then again you can count the number of leaders the WPA has on your fingers and you wouldn’t reach ten. The trade unions seem to think that it is not an industrial vexation.
The churches are too conservative to even contemplate changes in the legislation. The PPP will see it as none of its business. The PPP’s physiology comes from Indians and the percentage of Indian youths jailed for marijuana is very small compared to Afro-Guyanese.
But make no mistake; the PPP is an energetic party when it comes to defending the interests of its constituencies.
This columnist believes that if conviction for small amounts of marijuana was a perversity pronounced in the Indian community, the PPP would have already created a tsunami of condemnation in Guyanese society. This country is in for a surprise with the PPP in opposition. The PPP plays opposition politics very well.
The PPP may have to face dangerous moments over its semi-fascist rule during the Jagdeo/Ramotar reign but as an opposition party the PPP is going to create nightmares for the APNU-AFC Government. It will simply pick on very small mistakes. You may hate the PPP, you may wish the PPP does not exist but what you will have to face is the reality of a truculent PPP that will give the government no space to breathe.
The law for small possession of drugs has to change and it should be a priority for the Cabinet. The culprits are bail requirements and mandatory minimum sentence. It is asinine to jail an eighteen year old who is a first offender for a tiny amount of marijuana. Since President Hoyte brought in his silly legislation in 1988, thousands of young lives have been destroyed in this country. The policy of pardoning sixty young offenders every year through presidential prerogative is a step in the right direction.
I suspect this move by Present Granger is designed to help those young men convicted of smoking marijuana but as President, Mr. Granger may have been shy of wanting to condemn the law. After all, he may say I am the President; it is up to others to do so.
The latest country to legalize possession of small amount of marijuana is Chile but here in Guyana the subject is taboo.
One of the most macabre aspects of the marijuana tragedy in Guyana is the attitude of the Magistrates. There is scope in the law to grant bail and to order community service. But Magistrates are inflexible about avoiding that direction. With the stupidity and asininity that characterize the Magistracy, don’t expect commonsense to prevail.

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