Dear Editor,
David Casavis’s book documenting the mafia-like criminal connections between an American Embassy official and Haleem Khan, exposes the development of a criminal enterprise that has grown to encompass virtually every aspect of our lives in Guyana. It did not disappear with the apprehension, prosecution and jailing of some of the principals in the enterprise. In fact, since the removal from the scene of these principals, their underlings have blended into the political power assembly in Guyana, and are now being employed in a variety of ways. And as has now become apparent, while the Minister of Home Affairs engages in his “wolf wolf” lament about the potential for instability in the country, he has named one of these people to a committee comprised of civilians responsible for the oversight of reforming the Guyana Police Force. Talk about bare-faced hypocrisy and spitting in the eyes of the citizenry.
An excerpt from Thomas Caroll’s book reads, “It was about a week into heavy visa sales production… that [name given] came up to Carroll to tell him that the boss was interested in meeting with him. Khan lived in a mansion on the Atlantic Coast and stayed on the West Side of the river. He had a collection of cars and a million dollars in cash in US dollars in his well guarded mansion. Carroll had now entered the big league. When they did meet Khan told Carroll that [two names given] were just errand boys. He was the boss and he wanted to work with Carroll directly. So eager was he to obtain Carroll’s services that he bid too high.” Given the fact that one of these “errand boys” has now been appointed by the Minister of Home Affairs to the civilian commission to reform the GPF the question becomes, what kind of reform does the Minister have in mind for the force, and what will that entail for the citizens of Guyana?
Editor the press, the opposition and the international community need to investigate these moves that do not augur well for stability in our nation in particular, and the region in general. We can well recall the attempt by the former President Bharrat Jagdeo to impose a former New York Commissioner as a consultant in relation to the Guyana Police Force. We can recall that this man was subsequently indicted and jailed for criminal acts in the United States of America. Over the past two decades, some members of the PPP regime have displayed a propensity to associate with corrupt individuals, all the while accusing others of supporting criminality.
I call on the opposition and all civic minded Guyanese to procure this book, read it, and draw an understanding of the hidden and nefarious machinations at work in Guyana.
The late American attorney-at-law and Associate Justice on the US Supreme Court, Louis D Brandeis, advised that the government teaches people by its example. When the government becomes the law-breaker it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy ‒ or words to that effect. For the sake of our country, the future of our children, this slide must end now.
Yours faithfully,
Mark A Benschop
