Dear Editor,
Somebody, please tell that the PPP Government isn’t serious. No confirmation needed, but I had to table that, anyway. A national spy agency? For what purpose fellow Guyanese? To gather intelligence in foreign locations only? Whoever falls for that bull from the PPP Government, with the Attorney General piloting this local spy satellite forward is slower than me, has fewer marbles left, and qualifies as a complete simpleton.
I go to the jugular: this PPP Government spy agency is to spy on Guyanese. To spy on Guyanese wherever they are. Repeat: wherever they are. If government and leaders cannot stomach honest questions, attack even women, and unchains its online troopers to intimidate, stomp out dissenters, then there is no telling what the power and presence of a Guyanese spy agency could be used for (locally), whose presences (locally) can be jeopardized, and what where all its snooping leads (locally). I harbour the worst. A national spy agency is a PPP ‘jumbie bird’ for tyrannizing and terrorizing Guyanese. Technology invaded, degraded. Records accessed, misused. Constitutional sanctuaries violated, profaned. In every instance, citizens are endangered, subject to creeping totalitarian horrors. This is what the PPP has always been about: not governing, but plotting for anything that assures dominating and controlling.
I hear that all constitutional protections would be intact. Sorry AG, but that only adds to local anxieties because of the inspiring regard that the PPP Government has had for Constitution and hallowed provisions. I fully appreciate that Great Britain has its MI5 and MI6 for domestic and foreign spook matters respectively. Similarly, America has the CIA and the FBI, with which some extraordinary Guyanese have acquaintance. It might be just on paper and in computer files, but the links to the latter are pronounced. The security, confidence, checks, and balances, is that the USA, generally speaking, is a country of laws, notwithstanding rising executive lawlessness. Can any Guyanese ever contemplate a sitting President (or one who was one) being wrapped in the long arm of the law? I certainly can’t.
The point is that Guyana is not America because, for the most part, we do not have trusted institutions, credible people, and a visible, vocal, and vigorous watchdog class. Hence, a national spy agency would be the worst thing that we can ever contemplate, ever have. Remember Special Branch in Burnham’s hands. Too much exposure, too much danger for Guyanese, because of the high probability of misuse and misdirection to get at perceived PPP enemies. The group-party and government-is neither disciplined nor principled nor law-abiding nor trustworthy enough-for any clearheaded, right-thinking Guyanese ever to see positives in such a spy agency concoction.
Here are some parting tidbits. ABC&E people now have the least respect for issues emerging out of the PPP Government. Which one of those countries will greenlight its spooks sharing information with Guyanese operating on their shores, diplomatic cover or not? Who is not going to spy on them, their work, and compromise them? When I consider the implications of that seized phone, it is obvious that the foreigners must be shaking their heads in remorse for their work. After working so hard to return the PPP and its princes to power, matters had to deteriorate to where they are. Talk about a terrible investment.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall