Dear Editor,
An insightful SN editorial, indeed, of March 4th, “The Neil Madramootoo murder charge.” Next to that, there was the letter by Mr. Gaylord Riley titled “Woe unto our women; government is impotent” (KN, March 4). In the shortest summary, women and young children in Guyana are brutalized and victimized. In a longer description, women are terrorized, children jeopardized, government paralyzed, and society traumatized in large segments, in too many unrelated places.
The government is paralyzed is my focus since the other areas are well-known, familiar to neighbours and numerous natives. The whole nation would not be an exaggeration. To a decent extent, the SN editorial referenced stripped a section or two in the Guyana Police Force of uniform and badge. Training and gathering evidence? Where and how, and why these inexplicable institutional holes that damage the work of the true, tried, and trustworthy in the thin khaki line? It is not comforting to a society that is traumatized to have a national law enforcement agency that collapses under its own weight with what I shall label ‘mysteries.’
The Neil Madramootoo murder charge had so many huge holes that the Titanic could have sailed through them, and still be here today. In another venue, there would be a flurry of outcries and charges about perceived misconduct, and not just in the policing and detecting and supporting with compelling evidence. But in the entire management of the case. Defense attorneys dream of such layups and walkovers. I have seen cases and circumstances with holes, but this one had no bottom, no sides, not a damn thing that indicated a relentless pursuit of justice. An honest pursuit. The departed Ashmin Mahadeo must sleep the sleep of the restless dead. Ms. Mahadeo’s sad story was so blinding that it provoked revealing.
I am struggling here, as to what influenced the situation, assisted the outcome to its inevitable terminal. Forgive me, but money, politics, and relationships, in some combination, have all had their say and overpowering weight too frequently in this country. A blot is cast upon honest toilers in the GPF, the prosecutorial cohort, and the magistracy itself. One woman now deceased in some distant spot in Guyana may pass for a time under the radar. But when they first add up and then multiply over an extended season, then it is time to look more keenly (and critically) at the entire apparatus of what passes for justice in Guyana.
I oftentimes ask myself how some people stand themselves here. They carry on with their pretenses on Carmichael Street, Main Street, and Vlissingen Road, among other places. Murder, rape, and various forms of predatory behaviour, all condoned, and deep in the bosom. Who refuses to testify? Who is paid off? Who settles? Who abandons family because of the sacredness of party? Who is protected? Who protects? In the latter instance, a former top national officeholder absorbed family abuse stoically, rather than initiate what could lead to injury to the reputation of the party.
Perhaps that kind of thinking explains why alleged child rapists are granted bail. Why some sentences are so suspect in that they look laced with the embroidery of currency. Nothing makes sense anymore in this country. No leader stands as someone that could be recommended to be a neighbour, or a partner, or even a fleeting visitor. Just so that the point pierces deeply and wrenchingly: not one damn leader. I look around and there they are: a parade of pretenders. How can a better policing mechanism grab a toehold? What imperatives of fair play inspires the search and the fight for justice?
Men spout endless mouthfuls of blubber about the law and democracy’s ideals. Both are nothing if the men speaking about them are frauds, empty suits with a background of sordidness, and visions of more such obscenities. We have all the paper, all the policies, and all the procedures in the world. Where are the officers and tribunes to make all that paper come alive and sing? Where are the people in government, in crucial national protective institutions, with the proper purity of purpose to deliver consistently? This is the national house built on sand and straw in which Guyanese stand, manage to survive. And as we do, there is SN’s editorial of March 4th, and Mr. Riley’s letter in KN on the same date.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
