Dear Editor,

A noticeable feature throughout human history has been the failure of leaders everywhere to learn the lessons from history. Said Louis Brandeis, US Supreme Court Justice, “Crime is contagious if the government becomes the law breaker; it breeds contempt for the law.”

I note today with some interest, a report which apparently exempts the government ministers from the polygraph test. In a society, where, with much fanfare, we hear a continuing drumbeat, ‘a return to democracy,’ this is an unfortunate development, particularly, in the light of a general perception that this administration is corrupt.

Given the Phantom gangs and the current saga of Roger Khan and Robert Simels, I believe that Freddie Kissoon must be right when he says that this government is much worse than anything that took place under the PNC. This is worsened by the government’s manipulations of some people and the generation of fear in others. James Orin Ogle wrote recently, “Government by the people is severely impaired where official practice is deliberate deceit.” This is very relevant and apt in the Guyana situation.

Incidentally and maybe unrelated to the above, I dictate this letter in the morning of Friday August 7, 2009 and am still not in receipt of the Burrowes Inquiry Report, which lasted several months and which was publicly handed over on Friday July 31, 2009 with comments made for public consumption by the author of the report and Minister of Local Government, Mr Kellawan Lall. However, one week on the Mayor and City Councilors are yet to receive it.

Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green, JP