Latest update September 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 25, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column
Hard Truths by GHK Lall
Kaieteur News – I cut to the chase. Is the police action at the home of relatives of Ms. Melissa Atwell, a preview of things to come relative to the much-discussed proposed amendments to Guyana’s Cybercrime law? Is this critic of the PPP Government being made into the first example or crude manifestation of what the amended law still in the proposal stage could represent? The concerns range from the somewhat clandestine way that arms of the State were lined up and aimed at a citizen to the possible chilling message intended for others cut in the mold of Ms. Atwell. Three other questions melted into one have powerful bearing: Who is next, by what means next, and when will the next target float into the public view?
I lay something unambiguously in the center of the public table, and I do so in the midday sunlight. When people engage in breaking the law, they should be subject to full and legit police inspection. No if, ands, or buts; no equivocating. No excuse. No exception. But only when there are solid grounds that lawbreaking has occurred. It must be the only consideration, the only discussion engaged in, the only one [lawbreaking] on which police decisions are made, police action initiated. To belabor the point: no other considerations must be involved, be they political, personal, or institutional. Whether government critic, or opposition asset, or ruling party storm trooper, none of those should matter, have any bearing on who comes in for police attention. Once the law has been violated, debts to society must be upheld. My conclusion of the facts and circumstances, as they are now known, is that a sack containing an illicit substance in a nearby alley is stretching matters to a precarious point, an uncomfortable one that cannot be supported. Some corroborations for this position have emerged from inside the Guyana Police Force (GPF) at its highest levels, bar one.
The GPF top brass, other than acting Deputy Commissioner Budhram, was not in the loop of plans, developments, actions. Top Cop Clifton Hicken was not informed, neither was top crime sleuth Wendell Blanhum, nor was the top officer in operations. Was informing Deputy Commissioner Budhram all that was required? Is this a standing procedure, relative to an operation that involved more than the usual sensitivity? Does this mean that any officer with sufficient standing and special connectivity could contemplate (on his own presumably) and then conduct unhindered such a swoop and search operation? Who and what circle of circumstances prompted the Asst Superintendent that approached the court for a search warrant? I ponder how do the lynchpins democracy grow in strength under such conditions, and how autocracy is not really what is at work. There is difficulty seeing how the GPF can run itself professionally and efficiently in such situations, with this being a test case. Pointedly, who else in Guyana should brace themselves for this kind of police hustle and police heat? Should people like me view the GPF as an unsheathed weapon ready to derail, teach a lesson, and bring down? Or as a protective law enforcement wall with my lawful interests at heart? One last point on this” there was a hush-hush air, an apparently rushed, and stealthy approach to the court for a search warrant, which doesn’t add any luster to what happened.
It would be interesting to hear what the Honourable Attorney General, Mr. Anil Nandlall has to offer on the GPF-Atwell development. I am thinking that I interpret what has unfolded so far in this Atwell family raid is less about the hallmarks of democracy and more about intrusive, invasive autocracy. What may be thought of as a “shade” by some is the equivalent of a meteor shower for others. It would help if Guyana’s chief marshal of law and order, Mr. Nandlall, weighs-in about whether this was bona fide GPF pursuit, or police perversity. I am weighing whether the Atwell family search was part of a sound GPF plan, or if it was either a plant, or a small picture of things to come. As said before, and reemphasized here, I am all for any action that upholds the law, regardless of who is involved. In the next breath, I am totally against any vision or plan to push protestors and exposers and objectors out to pasture. There is more than what meets the eye in this troubling, still largely obscured, police pursuit of part of the Melissa Atwell (‘Melly Mel’) extended family. Another question stirs. How is it that only a certain type of citizen is on the receiving end of GPF intelligence, GPF priorities, and GPF movements? The record of recent history is of a pronounced tilt in the direction of those who talk too much and write too much. And in both instances, expose too much and embarrass the powers that be too much. In a normal climate and environment, I would be inclined to label such a series of unrelated GPF episodes as accidental. Since there is nothing normal about Guyana’s standards and Guyana’s now well entrenched way of life, the accidental is cast out the window, with the sinister serving as muscular replacement.
Who is next, by what means next, and when will the next target float into the public view? Did what take place at the Atwell family residence provide a preview of things to come (against the backdrop of an amended Cybercrime law), or does this embody professional law enforcement activity at its finest, its most wholesome expression?
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
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