The Story Within The Story…A Pandit is murdered

Jul 15, 2018 News

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By Leonard Gildarie

I was out last week getting some long overdue things for the home done when, whilst checking my messages, I stumbled on breaking news of two persons discovered dead in a Campbellville home.
The next I checked, the details indicated that it was a Pandit and his son who were killed.
My mind immediately flew to Dewan Liliah. I saw reports naming him as Deonarine Liliah. He always introduced himself as Dewan. His Facebook account says he is Dewan.
I don’t know Dewan’s son, Gopaul, 29, who was also murdered.
Dewan, 61, was not only a Pandit. He sold spices and was a Guyanese who listened and gave advice freely. He always “hailed” up everyone.
I can’t remember exactly, but it was about six or seven years ago that someone gave Dewan my name. I believe it was Glenn Lall, my publisher, who introduced us.
Dewan would torment you. He would raise issues with the conditions of roads and other community ills.
One time, I drove to his home after he called and pestered and insisted he wanted to tell me something urgently.
A medical university, foreign-owned, was treating one of his tenants in a disrespectful manner after wrangling over fees. The student was from overseas and going back home without the studies completed was unthinkable.
Dewan called and ensured I saw the story to the end. His intervention led to that school calling a press conference to clear matters.
At other times, Dewan would call to raise his concerns about roads and pertinent issues, including social ones, in the country. Like I said before, he was just being a good citizen.
I followed some of the stories that came out from those shocking murders and I do hope that closure is brought swiftly for the many relatives and friends that Dewan and his son had.
I have said it so many times before and will repeat it again. Our biggest resource will remain our people.
We vote a government in every five years to ensure that the correct policies are made to protect them. We want better roads, safer communities, better pension and pay, and an ever improving education and health care system.
For us to continue losing so many, so carelessly, so stupidly, baffles me.
Let us take the case of Dewan and his son. The loss of the two would affect his followers. He was the owner of properties. His family at this time will have to wade through all the legal cobwebs to sort things out. We are not even talking about the irreplaceable loss of the two to family and friends.
The people responsible all have families too. Maybe children. More lives ripped apart.
Society will be screaming for justice so no one will pay the perpetrators any mind.
All because of two senseless killings.
I understand that someone living in the area was arrested with a cell phone belonging to the Liliahs. There are many cases daily of what we see as stupidity from criminals.
A number of them go back to the scene and even have incriminating evidence on their person.
Take the case of a few inmates at a jail recently. They were having a nice time, drinking expensive vodka, and smoking weed and then bam, one of the smarter ones decided to post up a group photo on Facebook. There was anger and shock.
Fast forward a little and the raids and attempts to smuggle things into the prisons have been seeing some results. It will be hard to stop smuggling of contraband into the prisons. There are prisoners and families outside who depend on the weaknesses of the current system to carry out their business.
It involves prison officers. It is big business. Unless we start to understand and appreciate the circumstances that foster such activities, the problems of smuggling will not stop.
A prison officer earning less than $80,000 monthly would gladly take a $20,000 here and there to supplement his or her salary. It is how things work, period.
Recently, we read of a major loss to L. Seepersaud, a family-owned jewellery business in Stabroek Market.
The alleged burglars were charged on Friday. The plot brought into question the standard operating procedures of a private guard company and the Mayor and City Councillors of Georgetown.
There are a couple of lessons to be learnt here. The world has become much smaller with internet. It is a fact that many homes have security cameras now.
Some businesses have sophisticated alarm systems that would alert personnel from a security company, leading to patrols being sent. In short, we have eyes watching us all the time.
As citizens, crime fighting is not supposed to be left to the security forces alone.
We have also to be the ears and mouths of our communities. From illegal garbage dumping to noise and other infringements, we have to ensure we fight back.
From minibus drivers and conductors to taxi operators who drive on the roads as if they have a date in another realm, we have to start opening our mouths.

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