Fear is the key: Policemen on motorbikes

Feb 20, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The first four words in the caption of this column is the title of a famous 1961 Alistair Maclean novel made into a famous movie. Maybe Maclean was in Guyana during the violent sixties and that is where the thought for the book title came (though I doubt it). It is an appropriate name for any book or movie because fear remains the biggest threat to the survival of civilization.
Fear gave us slavery. The slaves outnumbered the plantation security; they should have destroyed every plantation in the New World.
Fear gave us the Holocaust. Once the Nazi regime began to kill Jews in huge numbers, the Jews should have fought back en masse. Fear gave us the terror of a semi-literate monster like Joseph Stalin. He murdered most of the leaders that made the Russian Revolution. Fear gave us Fidel Castro. He ruled Cuba a few months short of fifty years; an incredible story of fifty years of failure but the Cuban people were too scared to remove him.
In Guyana, the worst manifestation of fear was under Bharrat Jagdeo and this is what is so ironic. People were scared of President Burnham and his lieutenant, Hamilton Green, during the reign of Burnham. But Guyana was in a revolutionary mood when Walter Rodney came onto the scene therefore, the fear was lessened by the optimism Rodney brought. But it was under Jagdeo that Guyanese were intimidated into submission.
With very few exceptions, of which Mark Benschop and Glenn Lall stand out, Guyanese were scared of a mediocre ruler like Bharrat Jagdeo. It was simply unbelievable to see from the highest ranking soldier to the most decorated police officer to the UG academic with a big doctorate to the richest businessman, how they were all scared of President Jagdeo.
Guyana became a nation of sheep, a portrait that didn’t exist even under the scary hands of Burnham and Green in the seventies and eighties.
It is naive to think that this endemic trepidation will vanish overnight. In fact, it will expand and deepen if the APNU-AFC Government only shows one moment of intolerance. With the Granger/Nagamooto team, the expectation is that there will be accommodating, democratic behaviour. Should the APNU+AFC regime flex its muscles in just one episode, Guyanese will become even more fearful.
Since the May 2015 removal, I have seen that fear in people. A small group from the Bank of Guyana complained to me about the behaviour of the Governor. The litany included his decision to close the canteen.
I could not see Minister Jordan and the new APNU+AFC administration tolerating the sacking of any bank employee because of their complaints against the Governor. But this group was adamant that no names must be mentioned if and when I talk to the Finance Minister. I did suggest that they seek dialogue with Minister Jordan and I even suggested that I would ask the Minister to accommodate them. The fear they lived with all their lives in their country blinded them to the new reality. But they were really scared to be identified. Indeed fear is the key.
This has been a long digression to the main description I want to offer readers. On Thursday night, I was about to walk out of KN offices when my daughter rang to say that I have to bring bread. I stopped at Bakewell, picked up the bread, bought a slice of chocolate cake for my kid and a small sweet bread for me.
I took Duncan Street and turned into Sheriff Street. At the junction of Sheriff and Dennis Streets, I saw two policemen on motorcycles stop a car at random. They are not supposed to stop unless based on reasonable suspicion. I intervened. Inside was the driver, a woman and a child about four years old. As I moved towards the policemen, they allowed the driver back into his car. I asked them why the random stop. They said the tinted windows.
Those windows carried the same percentage of tint as thousands of other cars. I then requested the driver and the woman to hear the policemen’s explanation for stopping them so I can call them as witnesses when I lodge my complaint with the Commissioner. They gave me their names – Shurland Evans and Jonnelle MacAdams. They were both reluctant to stand in front of the policemen and become witness to false testimony. I saw the fear in these two persons’ eyes. I suggested I take them to Kitty station to lodge a complaint. But they gave millions of excuses. Fear was the key.

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Fear is the key: Policemen on motorbikes

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