The Brutus files, the Guyana papers

Oct 20, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News- First there were the Panama Papers, which caused a storm in a big pot.  Second, there came the Paradise Papers, which had nothing to do with the Garden of Eden.  Third, there was the Wikileaks disorderliness, then the Bahamas Leaks, which caused some big people to wet themselves.  It has been an unusually torrid time for malingerers, malefactors, and mudslingers in high places who got that favour returned straight into their kissers.  Now up comes Bart Jagdeo from beyond the horizon, as if he is Alan Ladd in that cowboy classic Shane.  He has what is best labeled as the Brutus Files.  More accurately, the Government of Guyana has the books on Guyana Police Force battler, Assistant Commissioner (ag) Calvin Brutus.  According to bossman Jagdeo, Mr. Brutus is playing with fire by filing his judicial napalm, and it could lead to him cremating himself.  What to make of all this?  Well, not too many people in the Guyana Police and Guyana itself, especially Mr. Jagdeo, will be too keen to know.

Disclosure is helpful.  I don’t know Mr. Brutus, take no joy in his predicament.  But, if he is half the policeman that he should be, then he should be well-positioned to play Russian Roulette with the PPP Government and Bharat Jagdeo.  Should the VP be interested, I am sure that this embattled senior police officer would be ready for any Mexican (Guyana) Standoff.  In this version of stalemate, it is not who draws first, but who draws what.  To make matters simple, it is not only about what files the PPP Government has on the police commander.  It is also about what he has on them.  If Mr. Jay wants me to call some names, I am willing to do him the favour.  For Mr. Brutus is sure to have his stack (and stashed away cache) of PPP Papers.  Though old hat, the repetition has its value.  Any volume of PPP Papers would be guaranteed to be stuffed to overflowing about who in the government burglarized the wealth of this country, how much hay (billions) they pilfered, where the stolen treasure of the people is housed, and who aided and abetted the crimes and corruptions (inside and outside the Force).  Mr. Brutus’ secret files may even have some ghosts in them.  One could be who killed Courtney Crum-Ewing or who was behind it.  Another would be what the police knows about a certain Chinese national named Su.  This would not be anything malicious on Mr. Brutus’ part; just a man looking out for number one.  Mr. Jagdeo should know about self-protection, since his reputation overtakes him.  Contrariwise, if Mr. Brutus was happy-go-lucky, a bit too casual, with taking care of his own business, then he is trapped by his own, how should I say this, intransigence, meaning, sluggishness of his feet.  A man of his seniority and pedigree should know better.

Further, it is helpful to look at this from a different angle.  The PPP Government has earned a wide reputation as an aircraft carrier of corruption.  Walk on the deck and it’s so greased with bad behaviour and bad boys (rude boys, too), that the unwary would slip, slide, and snowball headlong into the ocean.  Go below decks and the boiler room is overheating with corrupt temperatures.  Go on the commander’s bridge, and it is God help Guyana.  If for some reason, the Police deputy was so negligent that he allowed himself to be distracted (wedding bells, maybe?), then the PPP Government could have him exactly where it wants him.  On the ropes.  On the defensive.  On the run.  And, on the way out.  Regardless of the outcome of this rather titillating affair, Mr. Brutus’s days as a police bigshot are good and done.  There would not even be the kindness of any consideration for a spot in the police workshop to write his memoirs.  Who would want him around?  What is the utility that he would represent? Not when he has become too hot to handle tantamount to being radioactive. In brief, a presence not worth the trouble.  There is something else to say.  Given that this is PPP Guyana, I wouldn’t prioritize loading up on counsel.  My recommendation is that his first order of business is to get his own personal defence apparatus in high gear.

For Dr. Jagdeo’s part, he must be sweating bullets.  How much does the cop know?  What is he going to do, which road is he going to take, how far is he prepared to go?  To show that he’s not slack, Jagdeo went on the attack (we have the files).  I send him an early Xmas gift: he must be familiar with an old Guyanese saying.  Knack gat knack back.  For sure, Boss chief Jagdeo is not a stupid chap.  So, as this matter unravels, time will confirm whether this is another case of Jagdeo Bluff.  Or, whether it is one of Brutus’ Blusters.  Who will blindside and broadside whom, that is the question?  That may be Shakespeare.  Just remember that this is PPP Guyana.

(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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• Bharat Jagdeo, Calvin Brutus, Garden of Eden, PPP Government

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