Can Minister Ramjattan define what unhealthy means?

May 10, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Magistrate Leron Daly jailed 19-year-old Steven King of Kamarang village in the Mazaruni River for two years for the possession of a single bullet.
Daly was in attendance at a conference on drug rehabilitation where in the featured address, Minister Ramjattan told the judicial officers present, including the country’s most senior magistrates, that in his experience as a prosecutor, he doesn’t accept jailing first offenders because they come out as hardened criminals (see my column of Friday, March15, 2019 “Are magistrates disrespecting Khemraj Ramjattan?”
If the Minister of Public Security can offer that advice and Daly could jail a 19-year-old for possession of a single bullet then among magistrates there may be profound contempt for Ramjattan.
On the other hand, could it be the case where the magistrates say to themselves, ‘who is he to tell us how to do our job when he can’t do his’ because our criminal rivers have burst their banks and have inundated Guyana. Crime is scaring from baby to the centurion in this country.
Is Ramjattan a competent minister? I will refrain from an answer but offer a description of the climate that Ramjattan controls and owns.
First, he faces tempestuous calls to resign when the two prison mayhems occurred, there was an outcry that the jails are flooded with young men who are convicted for petty crimes like possession of tiny amounts of marijuana.
Lincoln Lewis has a phrase that he is fond of when describing our cowardly rulers. He would say that they lack “testicular fortitude.”
Ramjattan lacks testicular fortitude in confronting the mediocre magistrates on their destruction of youths from poor economic fortunes but Ramjattan picks on prostitutes. The compelling question is; this minister has nothing better to do with his time or is it that he has become so jaded that mental rut has stepped in?
Ramjatan imposed a 2AM curfew on places of entertainment while most of his friends in the AFC and APNU party way beyond 2AM.
Ramjattan (the satirical column, “Dem Boys Seh” has a rib-tickling sobriquet for Ramjattan) wants to do away with prostitution which is legal in many countries and if it is it not, the police hardly bother with the ladies of the night.
Ramjattan says he wants to clamp down on strip-clubs because it is an unhealthy form of entertainment. What is healthy about tax evasion, casino gambling, intoxication at the rodeo and regatta that Ramjattan’s AFC and APNU colleagues never miss?
One would like to think that runaway crime in any country is something that should be uppermost in the mind of the minister who holds the portfolio of national security) officially known in Guyana as “public security” (heard that the government will soon change the names of the education and agriculture ministries and put the word, “public” in front of them), rather than bothering with the world’s oldest profession.
Let’s continue with the climate that Ramjattan dwells in. Last week, I got several calls from a particular address on the East Coast Demerara urging me to come immediately and ‘see’ over-bearing noise creation by a neighbour at 7:30 AM. I declined on the ground that I had too many things to do that morning but I detected desperation in the callers’ voices so I went.
I telephoned the aide to Ramjattan, Ms. Diana Ramkumar. She sits on the committee to eradicate the noise sarcoma. I gave her the details and told her I was at the spot. She phoned back to say that she contacted Sparendaam Police Station, advised them of her status and asked for immediate action. She gave me the name of the rank.
No rank came after half an hour. I apprised Ms. Ramkumar of the situation, she called Sparendaam again. I then called Sparendaam too. After two hours, no rank showed up. The residents had to put up with the torture while I journeyed back to town in disgust at the Ministry of Home Affairs.
That very ministry made the end of noise nuisance a priority. But having failed on that front, Ramjattan wants to move against the beautiful women who are doing things that Ramjattan don’t like.
I guess we can end this commentary with a philosophical question. What is an unhealthy situation in life? Is prostitution unhealthier than government spending the country’s money wastefully? Is prostitution unhealthier than magistrates who jail youths for the mere possession of a smoking utensil? Is prostitution unhealthier that the ubiquity of criminal violence? Is prostitution unhealthier than incompetent ministers who want to be re-elected? Is prostitution unhealthier than corruption of government that came to power on the slogan of fighting against corruption?

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