Why the fuss now about the Amerindian boy?

Jun 01, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

A columnist would tell you there are several titles you play around with for each article. I thought for this one I would settle for, “The incomprehensible country,” but then I knew I had related/similar captions in the past. This is indeed an incomprehensible land where everything is senseless and nothing makes sense.
There was a big fuss about the jail term given to a farmer for eight grams of ganja? Why the outpouring of anger is beyond human explanation. There have been convictions for less than eight grams and there were no expressions of anger, and no one showed any emotion. Why the outburst now? The farmer had eight grams. Two days after his conviction, a young man was sent to jail for possession, not of the actual drug, but a smoking utensil.
In two countries – Malaysia and the Philippines – where possession of drugs carries draconian punishment, there isn’t a policeman that would take the time to arrest someone for the mere possession of a smoking utensil. There have been more than ten young Guyanese sent to jail for possession of a smoking gadget. It makes this country, in the 21st century, an unfit land to part of modern civilization. Suddenly last week there were outpourings of denunciations over what happened to the farmer.
Now there is a crescendo of biting indignations over Mae’s Schools’ mistreatment of an Amerindian boy who chose to display his native wear in school.
Why the incandescent rage? It could only be laughable to those who study Guyanese society. Today, it is the little Amerindian boy. Tomorrow, it will be a Chinese or Brazilian kid. The next day, it will be another horrible absurdity that you won’t find elsewhere. And life goes on in Guyana.
No one has shown concern about what happened at Mae’s before. Why now? Mae’s has a policy of peremptory expulsion for the mere possession in a child’s hand of a cell phone, not the usage of it, but the physical equipment in the child’s hand.
The son of Mr. Johnson, owner of Nigel’s Supermarket, met with that fate. So was the daughter of chartered accountant, Hardat Singh. These children were traumatized in a country where there is a constitutional institution named the Rights of the Child Commission. I did several columns of this bestial tyranny at Mae’s, but sheep do not file injunctions in court, only humans do that, and humans do not live in Guyana. I have made a promise to Mae’s Schools that once I hear of that mistreatment, I will seek a court order.
When my daughter was at Marian Academy, the school expelled a fourteen-year-old girl for kissing a boy. This Hadfield Street kid was subsequently destroyed. I got her into Saint Stanislaus College, but she never recovered from the trauma and didn’t complete high school. No one lifted a finger for that girl, even though I asked several parents to accompany me to see the headmistress. The sheep refused. They were all fearful.
So what is new in Guyana? The little Amerindian boy at Mae’s? His event will die this weekend, never to be remembered, and this ramshackle, tenth rate banana republic will continue with its gory circus. This society has morally disintegrated. Not one soul cares about saving it. The mess is from top to bottom and has enveloped the society completely.
Did Magistrate Sunil Scarce appear in front of the Judicial Service Commission for imposing a penalty that the law does not recognize? The answer is no. Did Magistrate Ann McLennan appear in front of the Judicial Service Commission for imposing a fine on an accused convicted for trafficking in humans when the law stipulates a mandatory jail term? The answer is no.
But the theatre of the absurd was graphically present here. As soon as news about the magistrate going outside the law was reported, the government issued a statement condemning the decision. But that very government has retained that very magistrate. Funny, comical, laughable country!
There are two incidents that have caused me to keep laughing whenever I analyze this wasteland that I was born into, and strangely in love with. I really found it hilarious when the rioting prisoners in the Camp Street jail were removed across the road to the wardens’ sports club. The convicts drank every bottle of liquor in the place. The other one involves our president. I really like this one. The constitution says a former or sitting judge or ‘any other fit and proper person.” Our president says those six other words also refer to judge-like qualities. What a country!

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