Dear Editor,
I thought that it was the Guyana Police Force that determined what bail should be when such is allowed. I was wrong. Apparently, ‘higher-ups’ do. At GY$200,000 for an allegation of public urination and use of bad language, the only ‘higher-up’ above that is some spirit force in heaven (if such exists). A word of thanks is owed by MP David Patterson that the bail amount set was not in American dollars. Then, I thought that members of Guyana’s National Assembly were in a category that lifted them up from the cast of ‘known characters’ who have to be set stiff bail, be shackled with an ankle bracelet to keep them in the jurisdiction. One of these days, I will get something right in this wrong-sided country.
However regarded, $200,000 bail for public urination (and colourful expression) registers with me as being on the side of overstretch. Again, I might be the only Guyanese who thinks along these lines; especially when it is a political foe allegedly caught with his pants down, at least unzipped, and mouth open in sharp, slashing flares reflective of the, ah, er, vulgar. Considering this luscious $200,000 bail figure for the alleged breaches, I put this in the public mind not to titillate it, but to try to push it towards some high-level thinking.
It is at almost every corner, and quite a few lampposts, and a number of fences or walls (some enclosing government buildings), that someone is relieving self of excess fluids. I speak not of street folks, but an array of good, law-abiding Guyanese. The point is that we have enough public hosers captured on candid camera, and in flagrante delicto, to fill Guyana’s coffers, so that oil money can be saved for a rainy day, and loans can be a thing of history. Now, after all the endearing chatter about the law is not punitive but pacific, it is not retributive but rehabilitative, there is this astonishing $200,000 bail overload. It reeks of ‘knack gat knack bak.’ Kick at my guy for being an alleged predator, and I get your fella for being a public urinator, allegedly naturally.
One has to love how justice is served in this country. I am going on a full-time fast, not to be mistaken for a political hunger strike. If the government, through the pristine police, can reach in this manner to send a message, and emphasize who is boss around here, then the prospects of some level of ambience keeps dissipating. Yesterday, a Member of Parliament got into hot water for urinating on the ground. There will come a time when they will be urinating on each other, and then the hot water will boil over.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall