Dear Editor,
The news has been filled with reports on the recently opened Eccles-Mandela Highway. It was a highly reportable event, with the usual mandatory presidential attendance in keeping with the occasion. Two things surfaced with the opening of the newly completed highway, both of which could bring some comfort to landlubbers plying the rough roads of Guyana. But only if they deliver uninterruptedly what they were placed there to do.
The first piece of good news that came at the opening was that surveillance cameras would be present and in action round-the-clock. This was from His Excellency himself and I cheer the man for the heartening news. We all know what surveillance cameras mean, when they are functioning (the recent New York subway horror attests to the vacuum that follows when they are not), and the difference they can make. Between justice delivered, and not justice both delayed and denied, which is now the norm here. I mention this because we have surveillance cameras around the area of that well-planned and well-executed Main Street killing, but today we still have nothing. Not one tracked down, arrested, and charged with a heinous capital offence.
What we do have to turn around in our minds and possibly hands is the fact that those surveillance cameras were around at the time of the fusillade of warheads, they were working, but of what they offer as evidence, nothing has been forthcoming. This being Guyana, there are whispers about who accessed, who removed, and who did what with the tapes. Whoever did what (or didn’t), and whatever was removed and used or misused (or not), the place where we are today with that chilling killing is nowhere. We have obvious dangers and obvious protections in place, but we are still at no place.
What is revealingly and alarmingly ironic is that a nearby space houses the official residence of this country’s head-of-state. Yet, this kind of tomfoolery and skullduggery can occur without correction or cessation in other places. When I take this into consideration, I ask myself about the degree of confidence, the level of comfort that citizens can have that those vital surveillance cameras will show up when urgently needed. That is, to show off the outlines of their figures captured, and the silhouettes of their images retained. This would be particularly in those circumstances, not involving run-of-the mill people like me and you and a dog named Boo; but those with labels like ‘big man’ and ‘big fish’ and ‘big boss.’ We shall see, and I hope that we don’t see more Main Street scenarios repeated. Both before and after.
The second development that came out later with this much talked about highway is that there will be police outposts along the way. Highwaymen and footpads beware. Those of a Chaucerian inclination should be able to make the association. But brigands and bandits, especially the resourceful ones, also are aware of what followed in the wake of that Main Street execution, similarly much talked about, and heavily speculated over. The interest is on who saw, who set free, who gave a quick, furtive pass, and on whose orders. Or for what kind of reward.
I leave by saying that it is pleasing that this highway will have surveillance cameras and police outposts. I hope that both will not unravel in doing duty, when troubling situations unfold. This is what a place like Guyana does for skepticism and cynicism, which both pour down from the top, given what merrily floats up there.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall