…for the country??
As your Eyewitness wrote yesterday, there’s no question that the horrific killing of young Isaiah and Joel Henry has shocked the conscience of the nation. But it doesn’t appear that there’s any appreciation for the quick and conscientious reaction of the Guyana Police Force to bring all their resources to bear on the crime – and to have already secured seven arrests. There was a crime – a ghastly crime – and the Police have acted. Isn’t that what is expected when the law is broken in this or any other country??
So exactly what is the cause of the protests, which we’ve seen spread from West Coast Berbice to the Corentyne Coast? It couldn’t be for Police indifference and sloth, which is what most citizens have experienced when crimes are committed, or have been committed, in our communities. The Police were on the scene hours after the bodies were discovered, and crime scene investigators were expeditiously rushed from Georgetown – so that the evidence wouldn’t deteriorate. One would’ve thought there would have been praise for the Police, and exhortations that they act with the same alacrity whenever crimes are committed.
Some say they’re “protesting for justice” for the two young men whose lives have been so tragically snuffed out. But the question is, “Has justice been denied in this case?” Up to this date, seven individuals have been arrested and the Crime Chief has assured one and all that investigations are continuing and “no stone will be left unturned”. Has there been any indication in the three days since the terrible discovery that justice has been delayed or subverted?
The President, the Minister of Home Affairs, and the Commissioner of Police have all weighed in and assured that they will ensure justice is done; but yet we see the protest quickly morphing into civil unrest and widespread lawlessness against all individuals seeking to traverse the Public Road – and Indian-Guyanese in particular. While for others there is the discomfort of being unable to travel uninterruptedly, the latter have been assaulted, robbed, beaten, extorted, molested; had their paddy trucks destroyed, cars damaged, and themselves being subjected to various forms of harassment and humiliation in the form of racial taunts with nary a word of condemnation.
All of these atrocities can be traced to the very public utterances of David Granger and Joseph Harmon, who, rather than calling for the Police to be allowed to do their work, have actually suggested that such work would be tainted since, they claim, “thugs” have been recruited into the GPF in the one month that the PPP has been in office.
And we finally arrive at the real cause of the protests and unrest – partisan politics by the PNC!
How cynical can they get??
…for race relations?
In the five months following Mingo’s dastardly attempted elections’ rigging, the PNC have brought out the worst ailment in our body politic – its racial cleavages. The opportunities for every man, woman – and even child – to enter the public sphere via smart phones and the Internet took the dangers to unimaginable heights (or depths). This media allowed the visceral racial fears that are normally kept under cover to explode unmediated into the minds of the citizens and further polarise the nation.
In the aftermath of the PNC’s sick exploitation of the West Berbice murders, over in the Corentyne, a week-old murder of a mixed race young man – which had been categorised by one and all as a fight following an old feud among some youths – suddenly was transformed into a “racial” killing. Even though he’d been riding home with an Indian friend who was severely wounded in the fracas!
So now there’s unrest on the Corentyne for “justice”, even though the incarcerated murderer has confessed to the crime!!
…for progress?
Your Eyewitness sees a testing period ahead for our fledgling democracy. The PNC is determined to continue its attempted heist of the reins of Government. The murder of the Henry boys is the occasion, not the cause of the war.
