– Lincoln Lewis
Trade unionist Lincoln Lewis has labelled praises heaped on the Joint Services by political parties for taking out two of Guyana’s most dangerous criminals as an endorsement of murder.
By killing Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins and Jermaine ‘Skinny’ Charles without a trial, Lewis said, society has been robbed of justice, adding that the issue is not about the guilt or innocence of either man but rather about holding up the rule of law and respecting basic human rights.
“It is viewed by many as a calculated act by the regime to destroy the chances of a trial and any revelations into the killings at Lindo Creek, Bartica and Lusignan as well as the execution of Minister ‘Sash’ Sawh”, Lewis said in a human rights address to the media yesterday.
Efforts to elicit responses from the political parties proved futile yesterday. Lewis disclosed that he has had discussions with the Alliance for Change (AFC) prior to his address, but he was ignored by the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR).
He said the families who have suffered losses and who bear grief as a result of crimes allegedly committed by the two men have been denied an understanding; a reason why their families were murdered and made to suffer.
Lewis questioned how the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) could embrace the killings for those whom the party seeks to appease, and also how the AFC and the PNC could justify the [killings] without sacrificing the safety and security of all Guyanese.
The country has hit rock bottom according to Lewis who said that criminality and human rights violations in the country have intensified and “this would have never been allowed to past without a fierce fight had (the late President) Mr. Desmond Hoyte been alive.”
“In Hoyte’s memory and to his legacy I say: Enough is enough! Our lawmakers and custodians of our laws have joined the PPP to continue its 16 years (of) violating laws and human rights,” Lewis stated.
He continued that the opposition PNCR and AFC as in any given democratic society should be projecting themselves as the alternative, and ensuring that governance is in their interest through the upholding of laws and basic human rights, but according to him they have both betrayed the nation’s trust.
Lewis said that based on what he read the AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan seemed more interested in Rawlin’s diary and the purported tapes from Buxton while the PNCR is more focused on, “a cowardly response of not necessarily defining these particular killings as [extra-judicial killings and that] the party remains resolutely opposed to the practice of extra-judicial killings.”
According to him for the first time in the country’s post-colonial history the elected representatives have turned on the people, adding that this signals a sad day for the rule of law and any attempt by members of the public to be treated justly.
“One needs to ask whether Robert Corbin, Leader of the Opposition, believes in embracing and upholding fundamental principles or just being prepared to embrace issues of political expediency. Mr. Corbin is a lawyer by profession yet he abandons the rule of law and his responsibility to the citizens … Not only have the Joint Services been given licence, but all men and women are now licenced to take justice into their own hands,” he said.
Resignation call
The opposition has also failed to embrace fundamental principles and represent the rights of their constituents which are the minority and the dispossessed, Lewis said, adding that perhaps the time has come for Corbin to resign from leadership of the party.
Further, Lewis stated that when people fail to buy into “government propaganda and illegal actions they are demonized, labelled anti-national and supportive of criminals for this has been the modus operandi of the government to deal with dissenting views.”
He pointed to the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) being sidelined for speaking out about denied human rights and extra-judicial killings; Oliver Hinckson being jailed for calling for engagement with criminals and the media suffered advertisement withdrawal and suspension.
“Today I put all those who support murders of fellow citizens, those who remain silent, those who disseminate and publish government propaganda and those who support this regime on notice that they cannot escape the efforts of such lawlessness. Today it is the threat to press freedoms, economic genocide, the authorization of death squads, charges of sedition and treason, the denial of subventions, and the advancement for those who embrace injustice and extra-judicial murders; tomorrow by our own acts the boundaries will be blurred until are consumed.”
Lewis said he is putting the CARICOM region on notice that they can no longer stand by and ignore the suffering of Guyanese, “for you too will be caught up in the downward spiral of a lawless society and forced migration of people who will continue to seek safe havens in your home countries.”
