Last Tuesday evening, Courtney Crum-Ewing was walking the streets of Diamond with his bullhorn urging people to go to the polls on May 11 and vote out the government, when around 8 pm, gunshots rang out, and he slumped lifeless to the ground.
This was no ordinary killing. Not this time the asseverations of those close to him that his ‘execution’ was a mystery, or whispers from the community that he had unsavoury connections; this time everyone thought they knew the motive. And to all appearances at least, they were not mistaken in their ascription. After all, this had the patina of the political.
Aside from the unspeakable loss for family and friends, Mr Crum-Ewing’s murder was a loss for the country at large: for its covenant as an open society, for its self-respect as an upholder of civil liberties, for its commitment to freedom of expression. While no one can deny that our democratic credentials have become seriously eroded over the years, in more recent times it