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Do not bite off more than you can chew
DEAR EDITOR,
Your headline for the lead story on August 10th 2015 says “Granger vows probe into ‘Sash’ Sawh murder and other crime wave killings”, but you more likely meant ‘promises’.
Nope…There is no ‘vow’ here.
Your report covers a large number of murders, massacres and slayings, but to what extent were they not the norms for a society with an inept government, large unemployment, a constant influx of skilful criminal deportees and an overworked police force that was well known for its skill at collecting ‘handkerchiefs’, ‘towels’ and ‘sheets’?
The cases are not that old for renewed processing. Could the current police force handle the work that would befall them? Surely they will have to respond to the President’s desire for more detailed examinations and possible solutions, but for a new government it is a tall order.
Mind you, the new government has done excellently in the short period of its governance. It has to be careful that it does not bite off more than it can chew.
Next up would be the availability and readability of the files. This might appear a trite comment, except that in the context of what the past inept government did most of the time, it would not be an unusual reality that the files are missing, pertinent documentation has been removed, the personnel at that time involved are retired, dead, or migrated, and forensic evidence has been tampered one way or another.
On the two particular deaths highlighted (Satyadeo Sawh and Leon Fraser), gossip and rumour were daily occurrences, and in the context of the Guyanese society, they do play significant roles in everyday events as if on the stage, viz,
So de man dead?
Dah we know.
Ah wha he do?
Dat we don’t know.
So who killed de man?
Dat we don’t know,
but all ah we want fuh know.
Sawh was an expert minister in the government, and as with any minister in any government, he might have tread on some corns. Rumour had a lot to say on this.
Fraser also was a high-ranking officer with tremendous power, full well known to all and sundry. Equally, he could have tread on some corns. Rumour had a lot to say on this also. Plus as we recently read in your newspapers, a finger was pointed at someone who was equally well known.
Gossip and rumour in the Guyanese society are known to be factual in the majority of situations. Hence it is not unlikely that they influenced the end-results of any enquiry.
As much as an apparent political decision to pursue these old cases is afoot, some political opinion should be analyzed on whether to proceed with local staff or to seek expert help from trained experts doing forensic case studies.
On the political front it is a good assault on the previous inept government, but now the better and new government has to be mindful that its intentions not backfire and become fodder for the opposition. Tread cautiously I daresay and do not bite off more that you can chew.
Leave Sawh and Fraser alone. All ah we done know wha did happen!
Carl Veecock
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