A witness is killed?

Nov 03, 2019 Features / Columnists, News, The Story within the Story

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By Leonard Gildarie

As a commentator, an eye has to be paid on the happenings of society.

Each moment, there are developments that have implications on our lives.
Something can happen in Europe and have implications here. We can recall a few years ago how the United Kingdom blocked our greenheart from being exported.
We have not been able to resolve that matter yet. However, it impacted significantly on our loggers.
There are a few matters that emerged last week that need closer attention. In fact, we should be alarmed and take action.
The first had to do with a disappearance of a city businessman with almost $800M. The money is from several business places and represents advance for goods that were on the way.
The businessman trades from Panama, China and India, it was reported.
The business owners believe that the city trader, who also supplies retail places around the country, may have been planning all along.
It boggled my mind that amount of money was circulating. It was all cash.
Year after year, and despite tougher anti-money laundering legislations, we continue to depend on lots of cash for our business.
India had tried three years ago to reduce the cash in its system by removing the large denominations from circulations.
It meant that it would have been hard to walk with large sums of money because it entailed carrying the smaller denominations.
That did not work so well for India as ATMs ran out of cash quickly, leading to long lines.
India may very well abandon that measure.
In Guyana, however, the large amount of cash in the underground economy has been there for decades.
It has been an attraction for bandits. We can recall too well of that horrific mid-morning attack in the late 90s of the D. Singh and Sons Cambio where several persons were shot.
It was unbelievable as that attack took place in the busy downtown area where parking is a problem and there are always crowds.
There were break-ins and shootout at another Regent Street cambio around the same time.
We know of money changers being attacked and killed – two in the last year alone.
There were large sums of cash available.
There are huge sums from the Chinese trading on Regent Street which is not surfacing on the official horizon of Bank of Guyana – foreign currency which changes hands at the store and disappears into the underground system.
In the meantime, we have the legit businesses and normal citizens who are spared no room when it comes to compliance.
We have tens of millions of dollars lost in taxes – revenues to the state but little headway in capturing that money.
We acknowledge that there are tighter structures at financial institutions which seek to minimize the use of those systems to launder money.
However, while the taps at those institutions have been shut off to a trickle, the well at the back door have been left running.
We have to keep our eyes on the ball and continue to regularize.
The Bank of Guyana and the Guyana Securities Council will both have to step up to the plate and make their presence felt even harder.
The administration will have to take a stance lest we want to continue to watch how a small group of persons continue to get rich at the expense of other citizens, and the country continues to starve for resources.
The other issue that should alarm us to the core was the disappearance of a witness in a murder case.
Collin Rodney, 36, of Lodge, Georgetown, disappeared over a week ago while heading to court to give testimony in the murder of his cousin.
A torched car with the burnt remains of a body was discovered Friday in a desolate area near the seawall at Mahaicony.
While there is strong suspicion that the remains are that of Rodney, the specter of such an occurrence is deeply worrying.
There is no sign of Rodney and his family is convinced it is his remains.
That being established, our law enforcement arm should swiftly solve this case.
Our country cannot contemplate such an act.
Our system is designed to ensure justice.
The kidnapping of a witness and placing a body in a car trunk and lighting it afire is abominable, to say the least.
It would send deep fears in witnesses and a clear message has to be sent.
To kidnap somebody takes planning. There is logistic involved. From moving that person to hiding them, it takes planning.
We have to be proactive.
As a country, these are growing challenges that will not go away.
They have to be nipped in the bud before we have situations like Trinidad and Jamaica where control would be impossible.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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