How was a group able to enter the compound of the Office of the President?

Dear Editor,

We should all compliment the President for pardoning both Mark Benschop last year and Phillip Bynoe recently.

The statement by Phillip Bynoe is of course interesting, and exposes an inextinguishable trait noticeable throughout human history. I look forward to speaking with him.

I note also, the statements as reported in the media by the PNCR Leader. He says the security forces are partly to be blame for the assault, which led to the death of two persons in the Office of the President compound. I suppose Robert seeks diplomatic niceness − partly? I can comment later on other aspects of this treason episode, except to say, we should listen a little more to Freddie Kissoon. In any other society that is democratically run and has any regard for the wholesomeness of public officials, there would have been a great noise and demand that the officers responsible for the security of our head of state and his office ought to have been charged for negligence, and the deaths of the two persons shot in that compound.

Let us paint the picture and apply some logic.

A crowd has assembled, certainly not for a church service or to bring flowers of love to friends in an area near to the principal government office in the state. A standard operational procedure by even an ill-trained security detachment should have been to secure the gates and perimeter fence of the Office of the President. I am aware and they ought to have been aware of certain security features of the Office of the President built under the watch of former President Burnham.

The gates were designed not only for decorative purposes, but to be highly protective. How, therefore, a group of unarmed persons could so easily have gained entry into that compound has not yet been answered. They had neither battering rams, hammers, dynamite, assault rifles nor any accoutrement that suggests a forced entry. I have always demanded an explanation of this apparent slackness by those assigned to protect the President.

This nation, its leaders and the media must all stop this sand dancing and have this serious question answered. Was there an inquest into the deaths of the two persons shot and killed in the Office of the President?

Where else in the world can a group, as noisy as they may have been, but unarmed enter the compound of the office of your head of state with such ease, or should I say facility? It is crucial to understand this tragedy.

It could not have been a surprise attack, because if what we were told is true, that the authorities had denied permission for a march, then the same authorities ought to have expected some reaction. For emphasis, this is the picture, unless of course, they descended from above with a fleet of silent helicopters. I pray for answers, so that we can fully bring closure to this unhappy episode, and therefore make sense of the pardon so graciously granted by our President.

To certain friends, I end with this bit from my favourite Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar − the words of Caesar.

“Cowards die many times before their deaths: the valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear: seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”

Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green, JP