H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – Crime: look inward first Minister Benn

Feb 06, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – I note the interesting development of Mr. Robeson Benn, Home Affairs Minister, highlighting what holds untold perils for this country and its law-abiding citizens. Organised crime and cybercrime were among the kinds of crimes that the minister found fit to emphasise, that which has him concerned.

I would be too.  My recommendation to the honorable minister is that he works feverishly and energetically to get the local house in order first.  He gets that in a comfortable and credible place, one that convinces skeptical citizens, and he could position himself to stand against the stirring foreign criminal tsunami (and their local aiders and abettors).  But first, Minister Benn is going to have to demonstrate that he has what it takes to go against the tide that is close to his bosom.

For starters, I latch onto one of Minister Benn’s spheres of concern.  It is the one known as cybercrimes.  To the Minister, I have this to say: the biggest cyber criminals in this country entangle some among his comrades.  They are as close as in the Cabinet, those who make laws for this country.  If the Minister needs any help, which I seriously doubt, I give him on a platter the cyber outfit that brands itself as Live in Guyana.  Minister Benn should know that it operates with near total immunity, has been given carte blanche to smear and slander Guyanese-law-abiding citizens, I assure him-with laws broken at will, and absolute contempt for any standards of decency.  Minister Benn should also know that Live in Guyana is a PPP sponsored dirty tricks group, operating out of government offices, very high ones, and fueled by taxpayers’ dollars.

If the honorable minister feels it necessary to feign ignorance, then I refer him to four stalwarts and luminaries in his circle.  They are his Crime Chief, his cybercrime manager, the Honorable Attorney General, and the Big Kahuna of them all, the former president, now Vice President and Chief Policymaker of Guyana.  It would be enlightening and even endearing as what some of those policies are, especially as they pertain to enemies conjured in his muddled head. These four men can give Minister Benn the goods on the cyber criminals in Guyana, and with specific reference to the cyber criminals in the PPP Government. For the good minister’s guidance, housecleaning begins inside the home.

Why go foreign, minister when there could be buying local and the going is so rich?  Fix this domestic turpitude, masquerade, and monstrosity that is Live in Guyana first, for that would equip self to be in a better position to deal with the White boys, who come here to wreak mayhem on this society that is so primitive [gullible] relative to the crimes spoken about.  Take a little word of advice from a lowly citizen like me: the foreign criminals are so good at their trade that they gobble up countries like Guyana for breakfast.  The foreigners are so savvy that they would setup their shops here, and Guyana would be none the wiser for it.  Oh, they know how to layer not only money; they are familiar with how to layer themselves into the niches and crannies of this society that has made the land so inviting for them.

Sometime back I had sent out an early warning signal to the PPP Government and its senior princes.  The cautions concerned casinos.  Casinos and gambling encompass more than cards and cigarettes and cognac.  Casinos are a magnet for criminals and their concoctions on crime.  Certainly, they are about high rollers out to have a good time, and splurge some cash (don’t ask me the source).  But casinos are also irresistible, the perfect camouflage for money laundering, the compulsion of prostitution, the attractions of alcoholism, the taste of drugs, hard and synthetic,that are seen as ‘glama’ badges by our naïve young, and the deterioration of environments and standards.  I urge Minister Benn to revisit Las Vegas, and its birthing, and the made men that made the Tropicana and the Flamingo their operating zones, their dens of control.  In case the minister is not familiar with the label ‘made men’ they are insiders of the Cosa Nostra, those that Mafia call men of honor.  Go figure that one out.  Since this country has had a long and storied association with Cuba, I recommend to Minister Benn what the American Mafia did to Havana during the era of Fulgencio Batista.  Casinos and the tables were a lynchpin for all that followed, the crimes that Castro had to come down from the hills and clean up the mess, before introducing his own ones.

We open the doors wide with casinos, and all that is needed now is for a cruise ship or two to dock here.  The government gave Guyanese the joys of betting, so that they could anesthetize themselves from disappointments and gaps in budgets.  It is a different kind of budget gap.  We already have more political crimes than we can handle, more cybercrimes thanks to the same political powers.  Now there is the belated recognition and admission that this country, this Guyana of ours, has all the ingredients that could convert it into a real criminal frontier.  May God protect and save Guyanese.  Me, I am an atheist.

(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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• GHK Lall, H@rd Truths, Home Affairs Minister, Mr. Robeson Benn, recommendation

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