Dear Editor,
I don’t believe in any other Caribbean country we have a civil society structure that is so hypocritical as what we have in Guyana. People just choose to ignore major perversities once it suits their purpose. This is a country in which bold drama will play out by those who have a grievance yet these very people will remain silent, and shamelessly so when other Guyanese are traumatized.
There are times when people in this country get their priorities so crudely and stupidly wrong that one thinks that Guyana is a country with psychically contorted people. For months now, groups of Guyanese are protesting outside of the Republic Bank head office on New Market Street over the wrongful dismissal of six employees some of which have migrated. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
I support the picket. I should have been there to hold one. I was in the picket line, when the women folk demonstrated outside the Sheriff Nightclub after an incident in which a family was robbed and physically and sexually assaulted after they came out of the club following a disagreement inside the premises. The demonstrators’ point was that the club’s owners had a moral duty to offer protection to the patrons after their security detail saw that they were being attacked.
Everyday you read in the two independent dailies of letters urging Minister Kellawan Lall to resign or calling on the President to fire him. This deluge of angry letters continues non-stop. Again this is understandable. But aren’t there more reprehensible things for which we should raise our voice. Where is the picket against Justice Claudette La Bennett. That judge sentenced a man to seven years of which he will only serve about 56 months (because a year of imprisonment in Guyana is automatically reduced to eight months) for rape, robbery and violence.
This man raped a wife in front of her child and husband, then beat them up and robbed them. Are you telling me that this sentence is not a massive denial of justice? Isn’t that worth the invocation of our wrath? The frequent letter writers on Kellawan Lall, the weekly demonstrators for the dismissed bank employees, the political parties, the women groups have all become oblivious to the mental scar this woman will carry for the rest of her life.
Let me say emphatically, I don’t know who this woman is. I just read the facts as written by a colleague from the Kaieteur News. I believe what I read. And what I read has disgusted me. I guess, we will see a picket/demonstration against the repossession of the car the former first lady used for her official duties. The letters will start pouring in from next week if they haven’t already.
This country can be looked at as one big joke. I keep to myself even though I get all these invitations to social events (my friend Moses Nagamootoo did not invite me to his huge birthday celebration at Ocean View on Friday night. I guess Moses would have been embarrassed to let his potential employers know that he considers me his good friend; not that I would have gone in the first place) because I really cannot stand the people that purport to speak for this country and those that claim they are interested in a democratic Guyana. Guyana is indeed a big joke but ironically it is also a tragedy
There is simply too much hypocrisy. Let me go on record for maybe the fifth time in writing and say that I do not agree with the withdrawal of state advertisements from the Stabroek News. It is wrong, it is undemocratic and it is a sickening reversion to the terrible days of authoritarian rule. But when Kaieteur News wasn’t getting any state advertisements, nobody raised a voice. The Pegasus still does not subscribe to the Kaieteur News. Now isn’t that wrong?
Yours faithfully,
Freddie Kissoon
