Dear Editor,
I refer to Mr. Frederick Kissoon’s recent letter `Mr Ramkarran carries on smartly with views that the Guyanese people ought to reject’ (SN Oct 9, 2009) in which he directed to me, in connection with the stealing of books, the following: “I hope Mr. Ramkarran knows that even if I did that, I would not have been ashamed because books educate the mind.”

Books do educate the mind but the stealing of books deprives others of reading them and thus prevents other people from being educated. Educating your own mind while depriving others of educating theirs is the epitome of selfishness.

The courts have always viewed larceny as a serious offence. In about 1970 a lawyer by the name of Hardat Misir, now deceased, was charged with  the larceny of books from the library of the Attorney General’s Chambers which was at that time the best law library in Guyana and probably one of the best in the Region.

It was not a lending library but access was available to lawyers. Books owned by the library were found at Misir’s house. He was charged for larceny of books and was convicted. He was later disbarred from practicing law and despite several applications for reinstatement was not restored to the roll of barristers until about fifteen years later, sometime in the 1980s.

This is the seriousness with which the offence of stealing books is considered. Today, because of the continued stealing of books from the law library of the AG’s chambers, it is a mere shadow of itself.
Yours faithfully
Ralph Ramkarran