Dear Editor,
The almost daily developing story of a murder, revoltingly disguised as a hit-and-run accident, has all the usual sordid ingredients: sex, violence, money, flight, attempted cover-up and alleged corruption. As I sift through the thickening sleaze, two questions come to mind: First, what is the price of a life in Guyana? And second, is there a long looked for, solidifying cadre of local ‘untouchables’ in the Guyana Police Force, more specifically in the Major Crimes Unit?
Grasping at elusive memory, a price of a life here has ranged from the unbelievable to the unlimited. I vaguely recall a man being allegedly killed for a promised sno-cone, or over one. Yes, life can be that cheap. Then there have been the reports of loaded (in more ways than one) drivers mowing down citizens and speeding away as nonchalantly as though that body, once a person, was a stray dog, or a lost bird.
Adding insult to fatal injury, the reckless and heinous would dispatch emissaries who are authorized to extend pittances of a hundred thousand, or several hundred thousand, to poor, frightened, and grieving family members. Almost without exception, it is a repeated saga of the disdainful lawless who avoid the stunted arm of the law, who rearrange conveniently the already unbalanced scales of justice and then spit upon it. Deal done, dead buried, matter closed. And this is all for a miserly five hundred (or a thousand) in United States currency. Life is as costly (or as cheap) as several hours of hosting a handful of associates in a high-priced drinking establishment.
Now there are allegations of someone coming along and offering first four million to two, and then a staggering fifty million to another, to make the pending matters surrounding a life snuffed out so casually disappear for good. In the future, I can see a hundred million not being out of the financial orbit; perhaps, the price has gone up in this the greatest game of all. That would be the sport of man hunting, and it is reduced to a grotesque sport, when all is considered. This is doable; the will and wherewithal are there, and collaborating circumstances and characters might make willing participants of the weak and the tempted.
In all of this, and many other instances now trapped in the tombs of time and trickery, there is emphasized the descent into depravity in Guyana, as fuelled by the fearsome fruits of debauchery. For those ready to see and hear and comprehend, this is what did flourish frequently, and was empowered for ages, long corroborating political ages.
But all does not appear to be lost. For out of the surge of stories and related sub-plots pouring forth from that death in the ancient county, there comes another stunner. It is of four million rejected. This brings to the second question: Is there a cohort of untouchables in the GPF, in the MCU in the cleanest, most honourable sense of that fateful word –untouchable?
I am prepared to step into dangerous territory and suggest that there could very well be. For prior to this recent felony, this same MCU has been pursuing doggedly and solving serious crimes at a commendable clip. The unit has been a widening bright spot in the extensive catafalque of rampaging crime. This being Guyana, it would be surprising if overtures of a particular kind were not made to the MCU hands to either diminish or denude investigations. Instead, suspects have been apprehended and removed from the streets, including those fingered in some old forgotten cases.
Now if the MCU continues to build on a relatively impressive body of work, and deliver results, results that are unimpeachable and stand, then I strongly believe that a foundation has been erected in a very significant area. For too long, serious crimes resolution has been subject to the artifices of the unholy and the criminal minded. If, by some measure a dedicated principled corps is in place within the GPF, then there can be hope. I believe in its possible existence and in its potential in true untouchable fashion.
I go further to state that the MCU standard has to be one that is expected and demanded throughout the GPF; it must permeate that sensitive and crucial body. The Commissioner should so insist, and hold the feet of his seniors to the fire to transfuse the heat. It then has to expand outward and downward. Observant citizens will measure accordingly. I believe that something momentous is happening; it has started with the people in the MCU and those overseeing them.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
