Lawbreakers – the punished and the protected

Dec 18, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Too many Guyanese are thumbing their noses at the law. Guyanese break laws almost as a habit nowadays, and a small handful have even taken to attacking cops physically. What came out of the court recently is that two such cop beaters will now celebrate this year’s Christmas in jail. It should be a hard-earned lesson for the two of them, as well as to any other Guyanese thinking of taking the law into their hands, and delivering their style of justice in the form of closed fists, or other instruments of violence. Jail time is a good deterrent, and for quiet reflection and second thoughts about one’s responsibility to obey Guyana’s laws.

We refer to the two now jailed young men, and applaud a timely, necessary decision. Having said this, there are some other points we would like to make. First, the law is mostly swift and sure when people at the bottom of the social and economic ladders are the guilty perpetrators. They feel the sting of the law, and without too much beating around the bush with sophisticated arguments. The guilty either don’t have the depth of awareness, the contacts, or the money that is required to mount a spirited defense.

Second, when those alleged to have broken the law are higher up in society’s circles, and have resources that can make things happen, like legal matters going away, then there is this standard of justice that boils down to one for the poor and unconnected, and another for those with deep pockets, and friends in influential places. We have seen, heard, and reported on developments like these that reflect the imbalances in the applications and outcomes in our laws.

Third, there were strong convictions before that those with political reach in the PPPC Government pre-2015 had a free pass on this nation’s laws applying to them, while the opposite held true for those considered to be political foes. Put differently, citizens believed that those persons who had some relationship with the PPPC Government, and were alleged to have broken the law, nothing came out of that, most of the time. But those who could be categorized as political enemies were made to feel the brunt of the law in a jiffy. This has become more far-reaching since August 2020.

Recently, there has been another development, which makes all of the above pale in comparison. As new laws are crafted, especially as they have to do with the management of the nation’s overnight oil wealth, there is something that has become conspicuous by its absence. There are no provisions and no penalties in the law for malfeasance in the handling of this country’s oil treasure. Great care and much effort were expended to insert clauses in our laws to go after those who reveal or speak out against (whistleblowers) wrongdoing, as such have to do, for example, with our Oil Fund. Meanwhile, regarding those political or public officers who participate in what would be normally classified as a corrupt act, or engage in what is against the interests of this country, there is nothing in the law that could be wrapped around them. Guyana’s ruling politicians spared no effort to ensure that such was not included in the law governing our Oil Fund.

In what could potentially be among the costliest of white-collar crimes, there is a blank slate. It is nothing included, nothing provided, and nothing that could be applied. This was not accidental, but deliberate; this was not incompetence, but possessing considerable wisdom, on the part of savvy politicians, to insulate either themselves, or others close to them, possibly already harbouring criminal instincts and attitudes towards the oil monies that are the property of all citizens. What could be a greater deficiency than that glaring gap? It is what allows any cunning as a fox politician to claim with a straight face that no laws were broken. The fact is there was no provision in the law that addressed what was violated. In summary, the ordinary citizen pays for breaking the law, while the powerful pay themselves, through what would be lawbreaking anywhere else. They setup things in the law to guarantee them that protection.

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