An admission without remorse

Aug 27, 2025 Letters

Dear Editor,

In an unintended twist, the President summarized what was at stake in the elections scheduled for September 1, 2025 in the following quote appearing in a Demerara Waves article dated August 22, 2025:

“Such criminal networks have the capacity to overwhelm state institutions, undermine democracy, pervert the rule of law and threaten human dignity and development”.

The US actions against Venezuela have forced him to admit that crime cripples state institutions, especially when they are being committed by public officials, or family, friends and favourites of public officials, with authority over those state institutions. He knows because his government has behaved that way for the last five years.

No state institution investigated the revelations by Vice News about Bharrat Jagdeo and corruption. No state institution investigated the alleged bribery and corruption scheme of the Mohameds for which they were sanctioned by the US. No state institution has investigated the alleged tax evasion schemes of the Mohameds. No state institution investigated Mae Thomas after she was sanctioned by the US. No state institution has investigated Hemnauth Sawh, a senior superintendent of police, who was sanctioned by the US for drug-trafficking. No state institution investigated the others sanctioned alongside him. No state institution investigated the CEO of the Central Housing & Planning Authority who acquired a house in the USA for USD750K. There were many revelations of corruption by Social Influencer, Melly Mel, that have also gone uninvestigated.

This is the aspect of public management and life in Guyana that many who endorse the PPP/C refuse to acknowledge as a constraint to development and dangerous to the future of our country. Now, through unexpected circumstances, President Ali was indirectly forced to admit the damage that the stewardship of the PPP/C has done to Guyana because of such failures.

Editor, any government with money can build new roads, new bridges, new schools and new hospitals. Those are the things that provide opportunities for grand corruption anyway, according to Rose Ackerman, an expert on corruption. So, they will be built by a corrupt government. But when that happens and the rule of law is perverted, our dignity and a chance at prosperity are snatched away from us.

Our lives worsen when underaged girls are raped and the perpetrator is protected by the government. In such cases, the rule of law lets us down. When a young girl, like Adriana Younge, has her life snuffed out through no fault of her own and her case is treated as inconsequential, the rule of law lets us down. And so, it was for the Henry boys, Haresh Singh, Ricardo Fagundes (Paper Shorts), Orin Boston and many others. They and their families were treated shabbily. State institutions and the rule of law under the PPP/C let them down. Those who endorse the PPP/C seem to be satisfied with such mistreatment and cruelty.

The examples that I provided herein are about people and serve as evidence that there is nothing people-centred about the PPP/C. The claim of the PPP/C that “we care” rings hollow now that the President was forced by the US to acknowledge the truth about the impact of criminal activities on society. No public infrastructure or cash grant can make up for the known failures of his party and government that ignore the welfare of people. Had it not been for this incident with Venezuela, we would not have gotten the admission that he and the PPP/C knew what they were doing was wrong. Yet, they have only shown us contempt and no intention to change.

Editor, on September 1, 2025, the value system of Guyana and the country’s future are at stake. The value of choice is a development that focuses on the people and the country as a whole or the continuation of the perversion of the rule of law and the use of state institutions to protect family, friends and favourites.

Sincerely,

Mervyn Williams,

Former Member of Parliament

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