What next will take place in Guyana?

Jan 31, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The story is still unfolding, but it gets grimmer by the moment. Whenever all is said and done, one man is dead, and three are injured, including an 11-year-old, in the worst of circumstances. Deliberate or accidental?

A slip of the foot on the gas through a failure of the driver or an inoperable braking system of the vehicle at work? Whatever it is, it does not look good, with troubling thoughts emerging from this accident in East Canje, Berbice.

Many Guyanese should be familiar of vehicles deliberately driven into crowds in foreign locations, so as to inflict maximum damage relative to loss of life, and maiming those in the vicinity. What else could be in the making, other than unexpected mechanical failure that led to catastrophe? This is unknown to Guyana, a society long accustomed to death by drink, severe injury through dangerous speeding, and so forth. But for someone to ram a vehicle (allegedly) into a group of people is a rare, if not unprecedented, occurrence in this country. We at this paper asked ourselves, and put before our readers, if this is not part of the continuing arrogance and lawlessness that sweeps this country from top to bottom, from parliament to population.

As put out to this point in the media, the surrounding circumstances do not appear to favour the driver in what could be termed a seemingly murderous rage leading to a moment of death and serious injury. Reports coming out of this horror indicate that there was an argument sometime before the vehicle ploughed into the crowd. Arguments trigger acute upset, and upset can drive to madness, where all restraint is hurled to the winds, with mayhem resulting. Said another way, people lose it, make little effort to manage themselves better, take matters into their hands, and let whatever will be take place, with the aftermath dealt with in some slippery fashion, this being Guyana.

Our concern is that more and more men (sometimes some women also) are becoming too full of their own strength, their right to dominate, and impressed by the swagger that their material successes give to them. Downstream oil developments on land have contributed to many areas of Guyanese life, with businesspeople in various areas benefiting handsomely. In too many instances, this has gone to the heads of too many, where their firm belief is that they call the shots, they can do as they please, and they are allowed, if not entitled, to get away with any violations of the law, and ambience of community and wider society. It has long been a fact of Guyanese life that lawbreakers have committed serious crimes, reached out to political friends, or friendly police sources, or paid their way, and walked scot-free.

We wait to see what follows in this instance of vehicular insanity that deteriorated into tragedy. As an aside, we note that a sitting minister of the current PPPC Government was stood up, all but ignored and disdained, on a matter involving public works, monies spent, and little to show. If this could have been the mindset before, with such a sensitive issue on the table, then it does not take much to dismiss some roadside bystanders, who happen to be nothing but ordinary citizens.

Our hope and wish are that this incident involving a vehicle believed to be converted into a weapon would be the only one of its kind happening here. Further, all eyes are now fixed on the Guyana Police Force to observe what follows next. Should charges be laid (and we think that they should, no matter what mitigating defences are offered), then the gaze and focus would be on how the Courts handle this case in waiting. We simply cannot afford any man or woman in this country to be so scornful of the law, to be so casual about the life and limb of others. The latter would include those who provoked anger, or merely happened to be innocent spectators in some deeper, grimmer human interaction. Though said far too frequently, we are either a country of laws, or we a country of men twisting the law to suit their perverse ends. We shall see.

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Downstream, Editorial, gas, Guyana, oil, PPPC Government

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