Due process, truth, justice and the law

Aug 16, 2019 Editorial

A female worker alleges superiors of sexual harassment and cover-up, and she is barred for weeks from entering her place of employment. A low-level law enforcement officer is alleged to have committed an illegal act, and is detained, perhaps wrongly, but knowingly. A reasonable question is: where is due process?
Similarly, and not unreasonably, too, another question is why are those who are victims victimised even further, without the dignity of a serious hearing in their places of employ, the benefit of some iota of credibility? Rush to judgment, convenient targets of opportunity, protection of a settled way of life, or superiors, or casual disregard for the law are all reasonable (again) conclusions that ought not to be dismissed. Some details should help to refocus citizens, distracted with electoral happenings.
A woman alleges that she approached a ranking officer of a public facility for a matter involving her employer’s vehicle. She claims that an unwanted and intrusive advance of a sexual nature ensued. The matter is escalated to the top of the entity’s management, where it remains unanswered for several months. Not satisfied with what was shared by the Human Resources Department, she takes matters outside of those authorities. The price paid is banishment from the facility.
This complaining, possibly harassed female worker is essentially denied her right to earn a living; her right to a proper hearing; her right to the dignity that is due to all employees, and especially women.
For its part, the management of the entity would appear either to be conflicted, or ineffective, or unmoved to the extent required in responding to situations, such as this one. It is because, as media reports indicate, four other women workers resigned from their positions at the same public facility back in 2012, to protest, in possible disgust, that their own claims of repeated pressure for sexual favours, from also higher up, fell on deaf ears.
This is disturbing as, at the very least, there is the appearance of a pattern of alleged unacceptable behaviour. For this to repeat itself some seven years later, introduces new questions and concerns, in terms of what is the thinking, procedural standards, and objectives relative to addressing complaints of this nature. An independent review of policies and procedures, as well as the related fact-finding practices, may be well in order, if not overdue, at that workplace.
The DPP has since advised specific action.
In a similarly troubling matter, this time involving the Police Force, a detective is accused of planting illegal drugs on the premises of a citizen; a serious criminal act by any reckoning. The authorities had claimed that there was corroborating video footage.
Now in an astonishing twist, the media obtained footage from the owners of the place where the alleged offence occurred, which went in the opposite direction – meaning that the accused rank was in the clear, while his colleague was never implicated nor touched officially. It appears that there are more damning developments related to this matter. These would layer curse upon damnation – all this in an institution struggling to find its professional and moral bearings.
There are serious questions that need to be answered. We aren’t certain that there is anyone in the police force hierarchy who can do so to the citizens’ satisfaction. There has been too much of this over the years, and it has become pellucid that no amount of changes at the helm, superficial or multi-layered, will produce the required or desired difference.
Who will investigate investigators? Where is due process and the law? Where is truth and justice in Guyana?

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