Who is protecting whom?

Aug 29, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

The relatives of the Guyanese machine-gunned on Main Street speak of a prime suspect in the murder seen shaking hands with local politicians (KN August 28).  This means such action is in the open, and I must thank the PPP Government, from the President on down, for that single instance of untouched transparency.  It raises all kinds of spectres, and returns us back to prior times, and the horrors of what went before.  It is not merely a matter of who is protecting whom, who in high offices are covering up for others, but just as meaningfully, how many different standards of policing and justice exist in this country.

As I continue, the objective is not to be provocative, but to be thought provoking.  For we need to shed our layered cloaks of putrid partisanship, if we are ever going to start considering and approaching (start only) an environment and society, where there are those ideals of democracy of which we love speaking with such self-congratulatory aplomb.  One of those ideals is justice for all, or equal justice under law.  A man suspected, whether rich or loyal or helpful, being seen in the company of politicians-be he or she President, Vice President, Minister, or Opposition member-should not result in an automatic brand of guilt.  But that very relationship, perhaps sturdy, mutually beneficial friendship, now stands as a flashing red light as to what follows, or shouldn’t unfold.

Is it kid’s gloves?  Does a wall of silence takeover?  Is there the perception of, as ably supported by, a blue wall erected with seniors singing some desultory blues?  Or is there the same energy and urgency that characterises the pursuing of a junkie, or a known character, or a citizen of past propensities?  Whichever applies, the standard ought to be same, and consistently so.  I seek to be realistic: Guyana is not heaven.  Oil and all, the President sometimes soothing, most times aggressively grinding, verbal exploits, and the reflexive rush to the rescue of partisan, from the book educated to those uneducated in what is meant by principle and honour, I insist that Guyana is not Nirvana.  It consists of weak men, weaker leaders, and a nation labouring with a history of the sordid and woeful.

The PNC took care of the killer of a man held as a hero, the one deemed to be the saviour of Guyana; except that he was blown up.  We still lament losses from a record that goes back to Son Chapman and travels to a jailbreak and all the mysteries between and thereafter.  I apologise for compressing 6 decades of the perverse into less than 6 phrases in 1 sentence.  The point is that we have had our troubles, terrible ones, with my next two points being that (1) we must have learned something about the futility of some ways; and (2) protection of perversions and the associated perverters makes all of us (me too) into committed or unwilling perpetrators of more injustices.  For those with conscience, try it.

I now try a different tack.  By now, something should be crystal chandelier clear.  It is that the lead suspect(s), prime perp(s), top candidates for the murderous Main Street barrage is not a regular street criminal, a run of the mill hitman.  From every indication, whether pointed to or still unknown, the killer(s) and orchestrators are commodities of power and enormously influential reach.  Though the President has garnered for himself a well-earned reputation as better dancer than Mr. Bojangles, the more he dances with and around this one, the more tangled his feet, the clumsier he comes across.  One would think that he is running interference for his besieged Vice President, given his hesitations, his hiccups, and his helplessness.  Again, I resurrect that wise reminder from Mario Puzo in The Godfather -take the people money, then there has to be responding when the call comes; even if it is 25 years later.  In Guyana, we are talking of the most recent two, and the piper has to be paid.

Hence, none should marvel at the gyrations of senior officers of what I still call the law.  It is a struggle, but the sacrifice is made.  I don’t think that this would ever be the self-degrading, humiliating, personal state for some two-bit bozo with an automatic weapon who let loose.  I must close this out: I understand that the officers are following orders and script.  Get it done any which way, and be done with it.  There is still such a thing called following the law, save for its falling apart, falling down, and falling flat on its face.  Whither standards, whither honour, whither law, and whither the men to stand for all three.  I do the President a favour by including him.

 

Sincerely,

GHK Lall

 

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