H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – The Maurice Arjoon saga

Nov 18, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Mr. Maurice Arjoon is free. He is free to breathe a little easier, free to collect his due recompense for the justice that took such an eternity to reach his doorstep.  This man must have committed a heinous capital crime, must be a felony artist of the worst kind.  He wasn’t in the least, though; and that is the grimness of Guyana writ large today in so many of its twisted avenues.

Whatever went on, whatever was the thinking in the corridors and conference rooms of those he associated with, it was not for the better.  Having endured a wasting ordeal, Mr. Arjoon must be circumspect. I have some advice for him, which he shouldn’t need, given his journey with grievous injustice.

This Maurice Arjoon affair is not over until all the money awarded is in his hands, as in the manager’s check cleared, and all the documents signed. If I were Mr. Arjoon, I would not sign a single sheet of paper until his bank confirms the funds are good. Then he should arrange to remove the dollars from Guyana on an expedited basis. This is the light in which I see those who made him into a public spectacle, a poster child for the vile excesses that torment this decayed society. Villainous, it was, and it will remain so for a long time to come in the nostrils of the remnant of citizens, who grimace at injustice.

There are no innocents in this matter. No company. No authority.  Not even that woman with a scale in her hand and a blindfold over her eyes. Talk about a family forced to walk a pirate’s plank. For the record, I know the Arjoon family fairly well, was even approached about a joint exercise involving his trials and travails. Now for the topic of today. Right from the first stroke, the first slash is that those who targeted him have gained an undesired reputation, something utterly avoidable, if only saner heads had prevailed. But this was allowed to spiral into more than a routine dispute, as interpreted and concluded by me, from what was furnished.  Bluntly, vindictiveness intervened. Ugliness and weakness came to dominate the matter involving what was alleged to have occurred, and for which Mr. Arjoon and others were blamed. In sum, the issues degraded to this: stick it to him. As relayed to me, those who sat as stewards wanted to get even with him, show Mr. Arjoon who is boss.

Imagine that! politics (not corporate) overtook events, with Mr. Arjoon being drawn and quartered, with the courts dragged into what was an altogether dirty affair.  It is a forgettable one, other than for the stench that hangs over everyone. Even the presumed victor in this sordid story, Mr. Arjoon, does not escape intact.

A few decades of his life are now irretrievably lost, forever gone; his family lost a member. Some of this was due to his being embroiled in this nasty, brutish business, thanks to a group’s dogged persistence, some would say insistence on exacting some type of misplaced vengeance.  As matters progressed [and deteriorated at the same time], the linkages between business and external powers in this country were revealed to Guyanese like never before.  The lengths to which the roguish would engage in the scandalous, the lengths they would go to crush those who have the gemstones to stand against their dirty interests became clearer and clearer.  The slavish collaboration could not be denied, for the whiffs were overpowering. Some hid behind claims that this was a private matter.  They hide from speaking about other agendas that solidified.  Get Maurice Arjoon.  Deny him.  Damage him. But they cannot hide from the smells coming out of their skin, the things they sweat.  In my way of considering things, some of the people with influential hands in the Maurice Arjoon matter did themselves irreparable harm.  The stench touches entities and individuals.

Returning to Mr. Arjoon-a man victimized and ostracized and criminalized-it is good that he has emerged on top.  But at what price to stand up to the corporate and governmental goons?  What price that now tears another limb from Guyana’s already too cozy judiciary?  If only for the resulting triumphs, so grindingly and punishingly extracted, then I say it is worth every minute lost, and it gives a psychological return for every shard inflicted.  I am glad that Mr. Maurice Arjoon prevailed in his quests for exoneration of record.  I wish that more Guyanese would find the courage, and the belief in their cause and themselves, to take things to the ultimate authorities.  As one blinding example, there are so many issues that bedevil this country that they should not be left to the tender mercies, the suspect wisdom, of the local courts.  To Mr. Arjoon and kin, I say: let the silver years now be graced with the gilded.  To the lovely folks in other places, a gilded cage is in order, with both locked in the same space.  Justice is served at long last.  Let’s see if this man gets to collect his check without any more delays, even for one more minute.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• corridors, GHK Lall, Guyana, H@rd Truths, Maurice Arjoon saga

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