…Police bribery?
Audreyana Thomas is no ordinary Guyanese – meaning, in our context – she’s actually no ordinary being!! While ostensibly the PRO for GuysuCo, she’s single-handedly taken on every and anyone who dare oppose the Government’s abrupt and precipitate closure and “amalgamation” of sections of the sugar industry.
This’ll eventually throw 10,000 poor sugar workers into the streets. Her pen – with the power of the entire State apparatus behind her – has worked to make the said opposition moot, if not mute.
So, your Eyewitness’ ears perked up when he saw her letter in the press, “Police should stop disgracing the uniform they wear”. The “disgrace” was her witnessing – “with her own two eyes” as they say – a couple of traffic Police fleecing a motorist. If this woman could spearhead and justify to the nation – if not the naysayers – the shuttering on the largest employer in the land, she could surely put a stop to the epidemic of Police bribery that has demoralised the public at large.
Especially since sugar – while losing money – brought in over US$100 million foreign currency annually and a Government CoI had recommended it be supported and privatised in three years. Audreyana was the face of powerful forces!!
But your Eyewitness’ jaw dropped to his socks when he read the (good?) lady’s actions and suggestions.
First, she caught up with the poor CITIZEN who’d been fleeced, and admonished her for paying the bribe to the traffic Cop!! Is she for real? Obviously at her power level, she’s never been forced to drive to the Police Station – miles away – kept waiting for interminable hours and then charged for the innocuous “infraction” they’d been pulled over for. Folks have things to do Ms Thomas, apart from writing letters justifying the firings of thousands: they’d rather get on with their lives.
But why didn’t Thomas upbraid the Police? If she had the evidence of her own two eyes – which could’ve been memorialised by her phone-camera – for someone with her connections, what was there to fear? But it wasn’t prompted by fear, but sympathy.
Thomas announced she’ll start a fund – to be supported by us the fleeced populace – to “top-up” Police salaries!! You read that right – the Harmon principle to stop bribe taking, but this time coming directly from citizens’ pockets rather than via their taxes!!
It didn’t work with the Ministers then – after their 50 per cent raise – and it won’t with the Police for the same reason. Greed is insatiable and only increases when fed.
…President’s College
Your Eyewitness knows the memory of Founder Leader Forbes Burnham is being rehabilitated. But isn’t the Muckraker going a tad over the top when they claimed, “President’s College was established on September 11, 1985, with a student body of 72 by Guyana’s first Executive President, the late Linden Forbes Burnham.”
The man died on August 6, 1985, for goodness sake. Or does it mean since the PNC Government was ferrying his body across the world to be preserved, he was still “around”?
OK…your Eyewitness recognises the statement could be semantically ambiguous because of the stilted sentence construction, but it does reflect the hagiographic efforts afoot on Burnham’s behalf, doesn’t it? Did you notice the purple flowers in Prezzie’s mala to go with the purple uniforms of the President College’s students? Did you know that purple was the colour of royalty and Queen Elizabeth I forbade others from using it?
It revealed the (royal) pretentions of Burnham when he picked purple as his personal colour.
Check out his flag with a black camoudi around a palm tree between purple stripes!!
…Local Government Commission
AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan says the long promised Local Government Commission (LGC) – which was to take over the supervision and disciplining, etc of local government bodies like NDCs and municipalities, is nigh upon us.
But not till the Georgetown meter contract is settled! Can’t mess with the fix by the gang of Four!!
