Dear Editor,
On the 17th January, 2014 at the re-commissioning of the Leonora Magistrate’s Court, President Donald Ramoutar said that the magistrate would now have a more comfortable environment to work in. At the time I penned this letter I was unable to find the total cost for the new magistrate’s court, but owing to circumstances, I am a somewhat regular visitor to the Leonora Police Station and the Leonora Magistrate’s Court and I observe a lot of things that need to be exposed.
Again, I don’t know the cost of the new court, but I would have thought that the magistrate would have been able to preside over matters without a fan spinning just behind her/his right arm. The reason for this is poor ventilation, so everyone has to be somewhat uncomfortable, especially during the hot season. I cannot understand why an air conditioner wasn’t installed and the building soundproofed (I observed Magistrate Nurse instructing an officer to go and tell the recruits of the Guyana Fire service to move from where they were because their drill was disturbing the court), and apart from traffic noise, when it’s raining, one can barely hear what the Magistrate is saying. With some 20 benches, each only able to seat four to five persons, many times people could be observed going in and out and standing at the door or using the doorway which is exactly in front of the magistrate.
Editor, when someone is going to court, he/she might be heard using the expression, ‘Ah going to church,’ and I adopted that expression because of my experience that you might have to do some serious praying. Exactly three days before the one-year anniversary of President Donald Ramotar saying that it’s a more comfortable environment, I figured that the Leonora Magistrate’s Court is indeed a holy place, because rain started to fall whilst I was in the court and I noticed it was leaking in more than three places. For a spanking new building to be so ‘hol[e]y’ is mind-boggling, but then again, this is Guyana. When I thought all was well, you find exiting the court that you cannot leave the compound comfortably unless you have long boots or are wearing slippers, because at both exits where the contractor cast concrete, instead of water seeping off, it’s seeping on. I guess the contractor was pitching to get the contract to build a swimming pool for our Honourable Minister of Housing Irfaan Ali who lives not far from there.
Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates
