Dear Editor,
It is still early, but reports are that executed GGMC worker, Trevor Abrams was clean; perhaps, too clean to let him remain in the environment in which he laboured. If this is indeed so, then there is danger-mortal danger-for those few public servants who strive for a different level, and to epitomize some degree of integrity and honour here.
If Mr. Abrams was clean-and the pointers are in this direction-this means that he stood in the way of greedy, ruthless men, some of whom might have been colleagues. These are men prepared to kill to get their way to continue accumulating wealth illegitimately, while destroying this society. These are men-commercial or official, sometimes both-who are part of a burgeoning local fraternity that is willing to remove any and all obstacles, including the human, in the path. That which cannot be incentivized, or induced, or intimidated to one’s satisfaction is then subject to extreme prejudice. It is just the way things have evolved in the domestic business arena; it is the way business is executed. And this raises other penetrating, poignant questions, from earlier precedents.
If Mr. Abrams’ hands are untainted, and he is not the victim of passion, a deal gone wrong, mistaken identity, or any similar such routine, then his name can be linked with other names (and persons) that have been removed forcibly from the present, and for the simple matter of doing the job that citizens of this country expected them to do. Alicia Foster and Levoy Taljit of the EPA and GEA/GRA respectively, were two youthful, Christian workers whose names and circumstances come to mind; and who are both gone in ways very troubling.
Again, if this GGMC employee was untouched by the evils of his time and environment, but was eliminated in such premeditated, cold-blooded fashion, then a few things become undeniably clear. Clean public servants are at serious risk, if not great and imminent peril. Watching colleagues (who might be resistant) are compelled to go along through collaboration with the criminal-minded to perpetuate the lawless status quo, or failing that to go down. Other colleagues, and accidental others, are warned as to the possible outcome of any cooperation with law enforcement. In sum, the messages are straightforward: Life is cheap; cash is plentiful; and the will is there to continue corrupt practices at any cost, including human life. The final solution is available, and will be implemented.
Finally, with this shooting as context, it is tragic to observe the ruling party and its leader’s insistence on minimalizing the presence of corruption in Guyana at all levels, and on the maintenance of that flimsy myth. Today, there is a small, but growing, list of those who once stood in the way and are now felled. Many people, outside of the masterminds and actual perpetrators, have blood on their hands. The same is true of their lips –that is not lipstick, just read them. Now the only thing left to ask is: who is next and when? The how is already known.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
