Capitalizing on tragedy

Nov 01, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – During the protests in West Berbice, video footage surfaced of a young lad raining cuffs on a mini-bus driver. Still seated in the driver’s seat, the driver attempted to fend off the blows with his arm.
The driver dropped his guard for an instant when he felt that the lad had stopped punching. Clinically, the lad let loose a tremendous straight right which smashed into the driver’s unprotected jaw.
The lad moved away and into the sight of the recording camera. Even though he was wearing a mask, it should not have been difficult for the police to use the image to identify him and charge him with assault and battery.
A few weeks ago, the fiery protests restarted. Fires were lit on the main road and as a motorcycle attempted to pass the blockade someone attempted to kick him off the bike. If he had fallen, he would have ended up being burnt alive. There is a video footage also of that incident, including the unmasked image of a person throwing tyres into the flames.
These and the dozens of other victims who were robbed, beaten and terrorized deserve justice. The Government has promised a Commission of Inquiry into the deaths which triggered these protests as well as into the ensuing protests.
No one will dispute that there is a need for no stone to be left unturned to apprehend the person or persons responsible for death of three teenagers from No. 3 Village, West Coast Berbice. But, equally, all the lawful means necessary should be deployed in apprehending those responsible for the deaths of every person who is murdered in Guyana.
Each person is supposed to be equal before the law. Every person is entitled to equal protection by the law. This means that every person’s death is deserving of the same attention.
The Opposition, PNC/R, is manipulating the tragedy which occurred in West Berbice. It is trying to use that incident to flex its political muscles in order to pressure the government to refrain from its investigation into electoral fraud. This is selfish, self-centered and sickening.
It has been reported, in another section of the media, that the Report of the Regional Security Services (RSS) Team which came to Guyana, claimed that one of the officers was informed by a family member of the deceased that a politician had urged the family to lie and to say that the killing of the Henry boys was political and racial. If that report is true then it confirms the belief that political forces are attempting to capitalize on the tragedy for narrow political ends.
These political forces are not interested in justice. They are interested in using the tragedy to flex their political muscles in order to cover-up electoral fraud. The State has a duty also to ensure that the politician who sought to pervert the course of justice is sanctioned under the law.
Whether a crime is committed against a person, such as assault or murder, or against society, such as electoral fraud, the police have an obligation to investigate both offenses to the best of their ability.
A Commission of Inquiry was promised into the attempt by the APNU+AFC to steal the elections of 2020. This is a criminal act committed against the entire society. And all those responsible should face the full force of the law, just as how those responsible for the deaths of those three teenagers should do the same. Equal treatment before the law!
The dirty-tricks of the opposition suggest it does not want to have such an inquiry. It is afraid that such an inquiry will expose its own hand in the attempt to rig the election results. It is already believed to be behind protests aimed at preventing the prosecution of key persons in the Guyana Elections Commission who are alleged to have been complicit in the attempt to rig the elections.
Those persons who did their mischief between March and July must not expect any sympathy. They held this country at ransom and knew fully well what they were doing and the likely consequences. They hoped that their plans would have prevailed. They obviously were living in some other stratosphere to believe that they would have been allowed to hold this nation at ransom and return it to the hands of electoral brigands.
The power-drunk Opposition is using their supporters to stir trouble in order to allow those complicit in the attempt to murder democracy to escape sanction. But the stirring of that trouble is also a criminal act for which those affected are equally entitled to a proper police investigation.

(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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