How does the analyst account for post-2015 fear?

Jun 13, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

On Friday, I received a text message from a person that I don’t know. People have my cell number because I published it. He informed me of traffic police conducting random stops outside the Leonora police station. I believe the sender read my Thursday column about the traffic ranks’ continuation of random stops, even though it is not permitted in the force.
I didn’t reply, because I am very slow in typing, and because each time I write on random halts by traffic policemen, I get texts and messages as far away as Berbice with the words, “Mr. Kissoon, Mr. Kissoon, they are doing random stops right now!”
Ashan Bacchus, a teacher in Berbice who contributes news items to this newspaper, rang me from Springlands three years ago, to tell me that on the very day I did a column on random stops, police were doing the same thing outside the station. To date, Mr. Bacchus is the only person who has consented to being identified as someone whom the ranks stopped as a matter of routine.
I got that text the Friday morning. Then about twenty minutes after, my mobile phone rang and the person said that they were doing random stops as he was speaking to me. I said to the caller that the Police Commissioner assured me that once a statement is given by the driver the Office of Professional Responsibility will investigate. The caller was agitated. I advised that he calm down, and simply give me his name, address, and license number and I would take it from there, and the police will be in touch. Suddenly, I heard the exclamations, “No, no, Mr. Kissoon, I don’t want to do that; I just informing you!”
I have done six columns on random stops, and with the exception of Ashan Bacchus, whom I had to persuade, none of the victims of random stops that spoke to me wanted to be identified. It is the story of my human rights career in my country. That was Friday. On Monday morning, I stopped at Spicy Dish on David Street, Kitty. A car pulled up alongside me and one of the biggest names at UG came out of his car. It is someone I know well. He was going to make a purchase. The first thing he said was that he read what I wrote about the UG Vice Chancellor, Ivelaw Griffith.
He added that I have to be more critical, because the Vice Chancellor is hostile to those who disagree with him at UG, is a non-performer, and is always out the country. He intoned, “Freddie, this man has done nothing for the year he was there.” He emphasized that I have to write more about the Vice Chancellor. If people know who the person is that spoke to me, then it will underscore for this nation how timid, reticent and scared this population remains, even though we had a defeat of the big bad PPP leaders in May 2015.
These are just two examples within a three-day period, from Friday last to yesterday. I simply don’t bother to record in these columns the encounters I have with fearful people in this country. Narissa Deokarran has written two letters to this newspaper in the past eighteen months, about being illegally blacklisted from leaving by the State under the PPP Government. In those missives, she stated that she complained to the then-Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, about her plight.
In both letters, Ms. Deokarran was at pains to request that her name not be published. I couldn’t understand why a person could be so wronged by her government and be so afraid to come forward. I see Ms. Deokarran has finally mustered the courage to tell another newspaper what happened to her, and was willing to be identified.
I have encountered not hundreds, but thousands of Narissa Deokarrans during the life of the presidencies of Jagdeo and Ramotar. Their fear was understandable – then-Police Commissioner Henry Greene, then-Commander Vyphius, and other powerful state officials and the entire Cabinet appeared in the eyes of the nation as people that would be vindictive.
After 2015, with Greene gone, Vyphuis gone, Secretary to the Treasury, Nirmal Rekha gone, GRA Commissioner-General, Khurshid Sattaur gone, Jagdeo gone, Ramotar gone, Kwame McCoy gone, fear hasn’t gone anywhere. Fear in Guyana in 2017 is very much alive. And why is that so? Because from President Granger to the evergreen Moses Nagamootoo to every conceivable big boy and big girl in the state sector and in the Cabinet, people feel these new rulers are not concerned with human rights and justice.

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How does the analyst account for post-2015 fear?

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