PPP Government’s historical inactions created climate for vendors at Mon Repos Market to be brutalised

Jul 04, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

My friend Suresh said, “Imagine if all those people were protesting for oil renegotiation, how that could change our country dramatically in a big way and solve poverty. Instead, they use it to brutalise our Indo-Guyanese.” The worst crime was not the evil of the looters, domestic terrorists, and intellectual authors of the violence, but the failures of the Police Department, the Home Affairs Minister, and the PPP Government which seem unable to protect Indians in its “votes farm” whenever it is in Government. The Mon Repos Market riots was “amateur hour” at its finest for the Police and Government side. A blogger L. Hunte said, “How could you march from Vigilance to Mon Repos rob people, run and ride plus walked back and not one person was stopped, arrested or caught – #police wasonlunch?”

This Government which refuses to add “Indian” to Arrival Day, an idea that the PNC supports, must pay attention to Freddie’s column, “Indian lives matter: Cotton Tree 2020, Mon Repos 2022.” Referring to Police inaction to charge anyone during the Cotton Tree/West Coast Berbice riots, Freddie said, “Once the police refused to confront the violent perpetrators, the instinct of immunity has crept into the psyche of African anti-PPP protestors that they can rob and beat Indian people … Cotton Tree of 2020 and Mon Repos of 2022 will happen again. I don’t want to hide my head in the sand, and I won’t … But I am afraid we will see Cotton Tree 2020 and Mon Repos again until Indian people internalise the lessons of previous anti-Indian mayhems and come up with a repertoire of strategies to confront the psychic infusion that Cotton Tree 2020 and Mon Repos 2022 have brought about in African protestors” (KN, June 30, 2022). What should be highlighted is this always happens under the PPP’s watch. Those folks who think they must vote for the PPP because of some imagined “psychological security” must think again and realise that the PPP allows them to become “collateral damage” and political fodder, notwithstanding their “One Guyana” sloganeering in overdrive.

There are some who believe that the Government intentionally did not stop the “protestors” so they can get political mileage out of it to pin it on the PNC and demonise them for “slo fire, more fire” strategies. When Indians are beaten, bloodied, and pillaged, it makes the PNC look bad and gives the PPP a chance to say, “See, I told you, those people are bad, do you want them to get in, or do you want us to get in?” And that is supposed to keep their ethnic enclaves in their camp, under a false sense of security. How else do you explain that the Government has an abundance of video footage and can identify all those who fetched debris to block roads, footage of terrorists pulling Indians out of vehicles, brutalising them, and setting their property ablaze but no one was charged at the West Berbice riots and the Dartmouth road fires and blockings.

Also, Buxton and Agricola, and now Mon Repos. The Police are standing right there and folks are fetching lantern posts, old wood, crates, vendor stalls, tires, etc. to block the roads and light fires. Not charging folks for wrongdoing sends a strong signal to the populace that they can light fires and block roads at will to get the Government’s attention, because nobody will get charged and punished. It’s a policy of “Crime Goes Unpunished.” The Government empowers such criminal actions by an implied immunity from prosecution. Is this how you do public safety and security?
I had written after the West Berbice terrorism that the Government should make burning and blocking of roads a “terrorist act” in a country where there is one main road where all traffic must pass, and people must be able to get to hospitals, airports, embassies, and carry on their emergency and urgent business. It should be criminal to block main roads in Guyana. (“New Parliament must pass law against blocking of roads during protests,” September 8, 2020, Chronicle). We are not like America where there are hundreds of bypass roads. Just recently, the UK passed such a law. See “Queen’s Speech: Road-blocking protestors could be jailed for a year under harsh new UK law (https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/05/10/road-blocking-protestors-could-be-jailed-for-a-year-under-harsh-new-uk-law). Blocking roads carry a maximum prison sentence of 12 months and an unlimited fine. But this PPP Government listens only to its own voice and that of its business class. They denigrate and demonise civil society advocates, using a popular columnist to call them names such as “The Usual Suspects,” “Lunatic Fringe,” etc. Their Minister is quick to send police officers with lightning speed to harass the Stabroek News about where it got information from but could not intervene with lightning speed to stop the rioters and offer protection to the market people before they were brutalised. They are quick to do silly things such as repeal of the cross-dressing law and seeking to decriminalise marijuana at a time when drugs are a big problem in schools and villages. When it comes to solid policy making and proper development planning, they fail. They are in a reactive, “random acts” mode all the time.

The President said he will seek a motion in parliament to condemn violence. Nation, is that what is needed? Is that a root cause solution? Compensation to the poor vendors who lost goods and property is a good thing, but is not a substitute for new laws, and solid policies and practices to make sure the recurring issues of the “Indian Security Dilemma” are addressed in a context of national security for all. Government must move steadily to accomplish diversity in the security forces, and all government and public agencies. The Mon Repos terrorism shows that Government must do more quickly. Arresting 16 people for riotous behaviour is a start. Will those who were seen riding away with loot, and those who destroyed vehicles and stole vendors’ property be charged? We are watching with 2025 in mind!

Comments from the Opposition side on the riots are very troubling: Hinds said, “PPP put agents in the march.” MP Jones said, “that is what the destruction calls for…that is the reason for protests, protests is nothing new.” Norton said, “many of these marauders or looters are directed by the PPP and their political agents.” Tacuma said, “the violence was the work of agents of the regime,” and MP Duncan was too gleeful as he gave live coverage. Kidackie said, “they say one thing, a black man kill black man, and if black man kill black man, wha mek coolie must pay? Leh me explain, leh me explain – The black man that kill the black man is an operative of the state that is run by a coolie government, a coolie head of state, a majority coolie cabinet.” Shameful! Lord, help us!

Sincerely,

Dr. Jerry Jailall

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