$300,000 bribery and rich Guyanese that rape the law

May 25, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – Tomorrow Guyana achieves 55 years as a sovereign country. I will have a mouthful to say in my next column. They say you don’t know what will happen the next moment in anyone’s life. But no matter what cataclysmic event occurs tomorrow, I will still focus my tomorrow’s article on 55 wasted years in which we appear to go forward but the backward direction is incredibly horrific.
A few days ago, I read that a prosecutor for the Geology and Mines Commission was charged for allegedly receiving a bribe of $300,000. It is impossible to ask a society not to charge a public officer for financial transaction. I do not think any scholar who argues that society treats the poorer sections harshly could defend bribe-taking.
My contestation here is that the harsh treatment of the poorer classes is class discrimination based on hegemonic domination of the society by the wealthy in Guyana. I look out my window and I see policemen stopping motorists every week for darkness of tint.
Then I drive to the supermarket, the National Park, on the roadways, and I see tints that are darker than the hell that Faust visited. In each case, the vehicle is of the extravagantly expensive type. The end result is the school teacher has to take off his/her tint while moneyed people can darken their car windows anyhow they like.
Do you know I did two columns and spoke to the traffic chief about seven years ago about a Portuguese gentleman of extreme wealth who as a matter of routine did not use a helmet while riding his motorcycle? One day outside of Kaieteur News, Dale Andrews and I saw him so we jumped into my car and drove behind him to see if Ruimveldt station would stop him. They didn’t. One afternoon, the gentleman, without helmet, rode through a road block on the Linden highway. It was witnessed by me; the editor of the Catholic Standard, Colin Smith, and Office of the President consultant, William Cox. Maybe he is still doing it. Guess why? He’s wealthy. In a small country, wealthy people own the population.
So the prosecutor is alleged to have taken $300,000. That sum is funny and I mean really funny. The rich and super rich spend that within hours at Palm Court and Hard Rock Café; the very rich and super rich that hardly pay taxes. Now taking a bribe is a criminal offence. The law compels owners of property to pay the municipal government rates and taxes.
Both the Mayor and his deputy told me that I can quote them as saying that the hundreds of expensive buildings that have gone up the past 10 years in Georgetown are not registered as tax-paying entities. See my column on the subject of Sunday, January 31, 2021, “What the Mayor and his deputy told me makes Guyana an unfit nation.” This unfit nation will be celebrating 55 years of Independence tomorrow. My mother-in-law died five years now and we are still paying rates and taxes on her house and it is not a small amount.
Can one argue a case for the guy alleged to have taken the $300,000? The answer is no. But we can argue that he is a victim of class discrimination. If the law stipulates that it is a criminal offence for public officers to demand a bribe, the law also stipulates that you have to pay rates and taxes.
Here now is the evidence of the alleged bribe-taker being a victim of a cruel class divided society. The owners of those extravagant structures are billionaires to whom $300,000 is monopoly money. But the rule of law hauls the alleged bribe-taker before the courts while the billionaires spend $300,000 in an hour at Palm Court and absolutely refuse to pay rates and taxes.
The situation becomes comically bizarre because the Mayor and City Council constantly complain that there isn’t money to clean the city. I drive around this town and a huge mystery canopies it. We have become an oil-producing country. There is no a guaranteed boost to the Treasury but Georgetown and Guyana are stink.
Last Wednesday, my wife and I went to Mon Repos. She said let’s drive up to Enmore to see the East Coast. She asked to be taken to Kissoon’s Housing Estate. As we entered the place, the first street we saw was dirty, with old fridge, old fans, and rubbished strewn all over. All the streets in that place had that appearance. Tomorrow is 55 years of Independence. Watch me!

(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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