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President Granger forgot poor Monica
Barry Dataram was sentenced to five years for trafficking in 284 pounds of cocaine. A gram of marijuana is equivalent to a tiny packet of sugar you pick up at Oasis Café on Carmichael Street to use in your coffee. In fact, if you do not believe me, just go into the supermarket after reading this and pick up a box of Splenda or box of packets of sugar. You will see the weight. Each packet is a gram.
So imagine how much marijuana you have to carry around if it weighs 240 pounds. Dataram didn’t turn up for the verdict and President Granger is peeved at that. Mr. Granger then broke with tradition and spoke about the judicial error in allowing Dataram to evade justice.
Normally, Heads of State do not comment on judicial decisions. My position is that if they do, I do not believe it is improper. The Prime Minister or President of a country has a constitutional right as all other citizens to speak on issues once the topics are not intended to incite race hate, violence or intimate decision-makers from doing their job.
But even if a Prime Minister or President should egregiously descend to the level of impropriety and publicly discuss a case before the court render its verdict, it is for the judicial officer to show personal integrity and serve the cause of justice by ignoring what the President or Prime Minister had to say.
President Granger had never commented on the work of the judiciary. But he did this time. He told the media that the escape of Dataram necessitates greater awareness of the magistracy and the judiciary in matters like these. We have journalists who do not think quickly in situations like this. An exigent question to ask Mr. Granger immediately after he made his Dataram comments was why does he think it was appropriate to comment on that aspect of the magistracy and not on other cases where the magistracy opened itself to serious questioning of the integrity of the judicial system?
If I was at that media interview with President Granger I would have solicited a comment on how he feels that Dataram got five years for possession of 284 pounds of cocaine but the very law under which he was sentenced allows a 65-year-old granny to be sentenced to three years for two grams of marijuana by Magistrate Alex Moore.
Just in case the President, on reading this, thinks it is a typographical mistake, let me repeat the number; two grams of ganja. So I figure if that granny was caught with 240 pounds of ganja, the sentence would have been a few hundred years. The granny’s name is Monica Drogen. Poor Monica!
The President was annoyed at the authorities for allowing Dataram to escape but maybe forgot to give a comment on if he thinks the law of a country should jail a sixty-five-year-old woman for two grams of marijuana.
Countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore have draconian drug laws. Horrible may be a more relevant term than draconian. I haven’t done the research but I doubt the granny would have received three years for two grams of ganja. I really want to believe that even in these countries she would not have received three years.
What I do know, and I know this for a fact; in no other country in this part of the hemisphere, she would have received three years for two grams of ganja. For my own education, if you think that there are countries in North, South and Central America, the Caribbean and Europe where a 65-year-old grandmother would be jailed for three years of possession of two grams of marijuana, then please call me and educate me.
I do not publicize my numbers and e-mail address but I am making an exception because this granny situation has pierced my psyche.
Now, please don’t get me wrong! Nothing in Guyana surprises me. I honestly feel this country is worse than any banana republic that has reached the final years of its existence. But this granny tragedy is just mind-boggling. In another column, I will tell readers how insulted and emotionally lacerated I felt when I was invited to be a member of the National Commemoration Commission to plan the celebration of the Golden Jubilee, that is, 50 years of Independence.
I know in my line of work, you attract hate and venom. But why the Government of Guyana wanted to be so rude and insulting to me? My cell is 614-5927. My home is 222-1615 and 222-1616. My email is fredkissoon@yahoo.com. I don’t have a Facebook account.
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Well said Freddie Kissoon.